PF4V1 affects the progression of oral squamous cell carcinoma by regulating Wnt/β-catenin pathway and angiogenesis

Platelet factor-4 variant 1 (PF4V1) was recently described as a natural non-allelic gene variant of platelet factor-4 (PF4), which has been closely associated with the growth and metastasis of various cancers. Our previous research showed that PF4V1 was related to oral squamous cells carcinoma (OSCC) metastasis. Howerver, it is still not clear about the functional role of PF4V1 in OSCC. In this study, stably transfected cell lines were constructed and the expression level of PF4V1 was verified by real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and western blot. The effect of PF4V1 on proliferation, migration, invasion, and apoptosis of oral cancer (OC) cells were detected. Moreover, a xenograft tumor model was constructed to evaluate the effect of PF4V1 on OSCC in vivo. Indicators of Wnt/beta-catenin, angiogenesis and epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) pathways were also examined. Stable cell lines with overexpression and inhibited expression of PF4V1 were constructed successfully. After stable transfection, PF4V1 significantly promoted the proliferation, migration, and invasion of OC cells in vitro, and their tumor formation in vivo. Furthermore, PF4V1 remarkably promoted the expression of beta-catenin, VEGF, and FGF but suppressed the expression of GSK-3 beta. There was no statistically significant correlation between PF4V1 and EMT pathway. This study provides evidence that PF4V1 promotes the proliferation, migration, invasion and tumor formation of OC cells by regulating the Wnt/beta-catenin pathway and angiogenesis. Our findings suggest that PF4V1 could be a very promising target of OSCC therapy in the future.