Abstract: PURPOSE: To clarify the expression of ferritin heavy chain 1(FTH1) in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma(HNSCC), oral squamous cell carcinoma(OSCC) and adjacent tissues, and to analyze the relationship between FTH1 expression and prognosis and clinicopathological features of patients with HNSCC and OSCC. To explore its effect on OSCC in CLA-27 cell line, and to provide a new strategy for molecular detection and treatment of OSCC. METHODS: The transcriptome data samples and clinical sample information of HNSCC were downloaded from The Cancer Genome Atlas ( TCGA). R software was used to study the expression of FTH1 in HNSCC tissues and normal tissues. The relationship between the expression of FTH1 and the clinicopathological features of patients with HNSCC was analyzed. The cancer and adjacent tissue samples of 40 patients with OSCC were collected, and the expression of FTH1 in the samples was detected by RT-qPCR to clarify the differential expression of FTH1 in OSCC tissues, and the correlation analysis was performed in combination with the clinicopathological features of the patients. Human normal oral mucosal epithelial cell (OMECs) and OSCC CAL-27 cells were cultured to further detect and clarify the expression of FTH1 in oral squamous cell carcinoma cells. The effects of FTH1 on the proliferation, invasion and migration of CAL-27 were studied in vitro. The effect of FTH1 on the proliferation of CAL-27 was observed by CCK-8 assay. The effect of FTH1 on the migration and invasion of CAL-27 was detected by scratch healing assay and Transwell chamber assay. Matrigel Transwell assay was used to detect the effect of FTH1 on the invasion of CAL-27. RESULTS: The results of TCGA database showed that the expression of FTH1 in HNSCC tissues was significantly higher than that in adjacent tissues (P<0.001),its expression was associated with poor pathological features and poor prognosis (P<0.05). FTH1 was significantly higher in OSCC tissues than in adjacent tissues (P<0.001). The expression of FTH1 was correlated with cervical lymph node metastasis, pathological grade and clinical stage (P<0.05). The expression of FTH1 in CAL-27 was significantly higher than that in OMECs (P<0.001). CCK-8 results showed that knockdown of FTH1 inhibited the proliferation of CAL-27(P<0.05). The results of scratch healing experiment and Transwell chamber experiment showed that knockdown of FTH1 could inhibit the migration and invasion of CAL-27(P<0.05). CONCLUSIONS: FTH1 gene expression is up-regulated in HNSCC and OSCC, and its expression is related to poor pathological features and poor prognosis. At the same time, knockdown of FTH1 gene will inhibit the proliferation, migration and invasion of CAL-27, which may play a role in promoting cancer in OSCC.

Key words: FTH1, Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma, Oral squamous cell carcinoma, Cell invasion