Prostasin is a glycosylphosphatidylinositol-anchored serine protease widely expressed in epithelial cells, with crucial epidermal barrier functions. Evidence has suggested prostasin may have served as a tumor suppressor in various cancers, but its role in oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) remains unclear. Thus, herein, we conducted an immunohistochemical prostasin study in 119 resected OSCC cases. Prostasin expression was decreased in 63% (75/119) of cases. OSCC with decreased prostasin immunoreactivity (low prostasin cases) tended to show a higher histological grade (p = 0.0088) and a more infiltrative cancer cell morphology (p = 0.0024). We then explored the role of prostasin in the OSCC cell lines: SAS and HSC-4. SAS did not express detectable prostasin levels, whereas HSC-4 expressed low but distinct levels. Prostasin overexpression suppressed the proliferation and migration of both OSCC lines in vitro. Conversely, prostasin silencing significantly enhanced growth rates of HSC-4. Finally, we analyzed the impact of prostasin expression on the prognosis of patients with OSCC; decreased expression tended to correlate with shorter overall survival (p = 0.0291) after resection. This trend was supported by our analyses using a public database (Kaplan–Meier plotter) of head and neck squamous cell carcinomas. In conclusion, we showed decreased prostasin expression was associated with aggressive features and a poorer prognosis of OSCC.

Prostasin 是一种糖基磷脂酰肌醇锚定的丝氨酸蛋白酶，在上皮细胞中广泛表达，具有重要的表皮屏障功能。有证据表明，前列腺素可能在多种癌症中起到抑癌作用，但其在口腔鳞状细胞癌 (OSCC) 中的作用仍不清楚。因此，在此，我们对 119 例切除的 OSCC 病例进行了免疫组织化学前列腺素研究。前列腺素表达在 63% (75/119) 的病例中下降。具有降低的前列腺素免疫反应性（低前列腺素病例）的 OSCC 往往表现出更高的组织学分级（p  = 0.0088）和更具浸润性的癌细胞形态（p = 0.0024）。然后我们探索了前列腺素在 OSCC 细胞系中的作用：SAS 和 HSC-4。SAS 不表达可检测的前列腺素水平，而 HSC-4 表达低但不同的水平。前列腺素过表达在体外抑制了两种 OSCC 系的增殖和迁移。相反，前列腺素沉默显着提高了 HSC-4 的生长速度。最后，我们分析了前列腺素表达对OSCC患者预后的影响； 切除后表达降低往往与较短的总生存期相关（p = 0.0291）。我们使用头颈部鳞状细胞癌的公共数据库（Kaplan-Meier 绘图仪）进行的分析支持了这一趋势。总之，我们发现前列腺素表达降低与 OSCC 的侵袭性特征和较差的预后相关。