Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Center of Stomatology, Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Changsha, China.
National Clinical Research Center for Geriatric Disorders, Xiangya Hospital, Changsha, China.
Front Endocrinol (Lausanne). 2022 Feb 9;13:828608. doi: 10.3389/fendo.2022.828608. eCollection 2022.
Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is among the risk factors for the occurrence and development of cancer. Metformin is a potential anticancer drug. Epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) plays an important role in the progression of oral squamous cell carcinoma(OSCC), but the relationship between metformin and EGFR expression in OSCC remains unclear.
This study involved the immunohistochemical detection of EGFR expression in cancer tissues of patients with T2DM and OSCC. The patients were divided into groups according to whether they were taking metformin for the treatment of T2DM, and the expression of EGFR in different groups was compared. Correlation analysis between the expression of EGFR and the fluctuation value of fasting blood glucose (FBG) was carried out. Immunohistochemistry was used to detect the expression of EGFR in cancer tissues of patients with recurrent OSCC. These patients had normal blood glucose and took metformin for a long time after the first operation.
EGFR expression in T2DM patients with OSCC taking metformin was significantly lower than that in the non-metformin group. FBG fluctuations were positively correlated with the expression of EGFR in the OSCC tissues of the non-metformin group of T2DM patients. In patients with recurrent OSCC with normal blood glucose, metformin remarkably reduced the expression of EGFR in recurrent OSCC tissues.
Metformin may regulate the expression of EGFR in a way that does not rely on lowering blood glucose. These results may provide further evidence for metformin in the treatment of OSCC.
2 型糖尿病（T2DM）是癌症发生和发展的危险因素之一。二甲双胍是一种潜在的抗癌药物。表皮生长因子受体（EGFR）在口腔鳞状细胞癌（OSCC）的进展中起着重要作用，但二甲双胍与 OSCC 中 EGFR 表达之间的关系尚不清楚。
本研究通过免疫组织化学检测 T2DM 伴 OSCC 患者癌组织中 EGFR 的表达。根据患者是否服用二甲双胍治疗 T2DM 将其分为两组，比较不同组 EGFR 的表达。分析 EGFR 表达与空腹血糖（FBG）波动值之间的相关性。对首次手术后血糖正常且长期服用二甲双胍的复发性 OSCC 患者的癌组织进行 EGFR 免疫组化检测。
服用二甲双胍的 T2DM 伴 OSCC 患者 EGFR 表达明显低于未服用二甲双胍组。T2DM 患者非二甲双胍组 OSCC 组织中 FBG 波动与 EGFR 表达呈正相关。在血糖正常的复发性 OSCC 患者中，二甲双胍显著降低了复发性 OSCC 组织中 EGFR 的表达。
二甲双胍可能通过不依赖于降血糖的方式调节 EGFR 的表达。这些结果可能为二甲双胍治疗 OSCC 提供进一步的证据。
