Objective: The aim of this study was to uncover the expression characteristic and biological function of STYK1 in the progression of laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma (LSCC), and to explore the underlying mechanism.
Patients and methods: Expression level of STYK1 in 44 paired LSCC and adjacent normal tissues was detected by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). The relationship between STYK1 level and clinical parameters of LSCC patients was analyzed. Subsequently, the regulatory effect of STYK1 on the proliferative ability of AMC-HN-8 and Hep-2 cells was evaluated by cell counting kit-8 (CCK-8) assay and colony formation assay. Dual-Luciferase reporter gene assay and rescue experiments were conducted to uncover the role of STYK1/TGF-β1 axis in regulating the progression of LSCC.
Results: STYK1 was significantly up-regulated in LSCC tissues than that of adjacent normal tissues (p<0.05). LSCC patients with high expression level of STYK1 exhibited significantly higher clinical stage and lower survival rate (p<0.05). Knockdown of STYK1 remarkably attenuated viability and clonality in Hep-2 cells, while overexpression of STYK1 achieved the opposite trends in AMC-HN-8 cells (p<0.05). TGF-β1 was confirmed to be the direct target binding STYK1, whose expression level was negatively regulated by STYK1. TGF-β1 was significantly down-regulated in LSCC tissues (p<0.05). Meanwhile, its low expression predicted significantly poor prognosis of LSCC patients. In addition, TGF-β1 was responsible for STYK1-regulated malignant progression of LSCC.
Conclusions: STYK1 is upregulated in LSCC and is closely associated with T stage and poor prognosis. Furthermore, STYK1 promotes the proliferative ability of LSCC cells through targeting TGF-β1, thus aggravating the malignant progression of LSCC.