Fig. 5

MiR-455-5p and PDZK1IP1 regulate collective migration and partial EMT in OSCC cells. A Upper panel: HSC-3 control cells cultured in 2.5D culture medium. Lower panel: HSC-3 cells transfected with pLe-miR-455-5p in 2.5D culture medium. B Upper panel: SAS control cells exhibited higher migrative ability and collective cell movement in 2.5D cell culture. Lower panel: SAS cells transfected with PDZK1IP1 overexpressed plasmid demonstrated low migrative ability and loss collective pattern of cell movement. (Red circle indicated tumor cluster at time point of 0-h, blue circle indicated tumor cluster at 8 h later and green circle indicated tumor cluster at 17 h later). C GSEA software analysis pointed out KEGG_FOCAL_ADHESIN and KEGG_ECM_RECEPTOR_INTERACTION gene sets. D RNA sequencing dataset from SAS cells with PDZK1IP1 overexpression in 2.5D collagen-coated culture system was evaluated by online tool: metascape. Bar graph demonstrated GO enrichment analysis. E LAMB3, PDPN, LAMC2 or PDZK1IP1 mRNA expression of OEC-M1 cells transfected with pLe-miR-455-5p (or controls) or shMAP17 (or controls) in 2D culture system. F LAMB3, PDPN, LAMC2 or PDZK1IP1 mRNA expression of OEC-M1 cells transfected with shMAP17 or control in 2.5D collagen-coated culture system. G LAMB3, PDPN, LAMC2 or PDZK1IP1 mRNA expression of SAS cells transfected with MAP17 overexpression plasmids or control in 2.5D collagen-coated culture system. H–M Correlations between PDZK1IP1 expression and VIM (H), SNAI2 (I), PDPN (J), partial EMT score (K), SPRR1B (L) and S100A9 (M) expression in the NKCU-OrCA-40TN data set. N. PDZK1IP1 expression in patients with and without risk factors for recurrence (perineural invasion, lymphovascular invasion, and extracapsular extension) in the NKCU-OrCA-40TN data set. O Partial EMT scores of patients with and without risk factors for recurrence in the NKCU-OrCA-40TN data set. *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001 by Student’s t test. Correlation p value was determined through Pearson correlation analysis