Graduate Institute of Basic Medical Science, China Medical University, Taichung, Taiwan.
Am J Chin Med. 2013;41(3):683-96. doi: 10.1142/S0192415X1350047X.
Oral cancer is a common malignancy associated with high morbidity and mortality. While p38 MAPK is reported to be involved in different cellular activities such as proliferation and differentiation, reports rarely define the roles of the individual members of the p38 MAPK family in cancer. We used two unique cell lines developed by our lab representing chemically induced oral cancer cells (T28) and non-tumor cells (N28) obtained from tissues surrounding the induced cancer as a model to screen out whether p38 MAPK is involved in the malignant transformation processes. The results suggest an association between p38β not p38α and oral cancer development. Additionally, the anti-cancer activity of thymoquinone (TQ) was screened out and we found evidences suggesting that the anti-tumor activity of TQ may be attributed to the downregulation of p38β MAPK.
口腔癌是一种常见的恶性肿瘤，发病率和死亡率都很高。尽管 p38MAPK 被报道参与了不同的细胞活动，如增殖和分化，但很少有报道定义 p38MAPK 家族的各个成员在癌症中的作用。我们使用了两个由我们实验室开发的独特细胞系作为模型，代表了化学诱导的口腔癌细胞（T28）和非肿瘤细胞（N28），这些细胞来自诱导癌症周围的组织，以筛选 p38MAPK 是否参与恶性转化过程。结果表明，p38β而不是 p38α与口腔癌的发展有关。此外，还筛选出了百里醌（TQ）的抗癌活性，我们发现有证据表明，TQ 的抗肿瘤活性可能归因于 p38βMAPK 的下调。
