Aberrant Expression of Clock Gene Period1 and Its Correlations with the Growth, Proliferation and Metastasis of Buccal Squamous Cell Carcinoma

Period1 (PER1) is an important core clock gene, which regulates normal cell proliferations and physiological rhythms of human beings. Recent studies have showed aberrant expressions and altered rhythms of PER1 were highly correlated to the carcinogenesis and development of malignant tumors. However, there is no study on the correlation of aberrant expressions and altered rhythms of PER1 with the growth, proliferation and metastasis of buccal squamous cell carcinoma (BSCC). In this study, PER1 and MMP-2 expression in the cancerous and adjacent noncancerous tissues of 38 patients with BSCC and its correlations with patients' clinical pathologic characteristics were investigated. A mouse model of BSCC was also established and mice were sacrificed at 4 different time points in a period of 24 hours. Xenografted tumor weight, proliferation index (PI), and mitotic index (MI) of tumors in the 4 time groups were detected. Results showed that PER1 expression was significantly down-regulated in cancerous tissues of patients with BSCC (P<0.05). PER1 expression was significantly down-regulated in patients of T3∼T4 staging and those with lymph node metastasis compared to that of T1∼T2 staging and those without lymph node metastasis (P<0.05), respectively. PER1 mRNA expression, MI and tumor weight had significant differences among the 4 time groups, which PI all confirmed to circadian rhythms. MI, PI, MMP-2 mRNA and tumor weight had negative correlation with PER1 mRNA expression. Peak value of PER1 mRNA expression and trough values of MI, PI and tumor weight all appeared in middle activity phase, whereas trough value of PER1 mRNA expression and peak values of MI, PI and tumor weight all occurred in middle rest phase. Our study suggested that aberrant expression of PER1 had significant correlation with the growth, proliferation and metastasis of BSCC and it might act as an anti-oncogene.