Abstract: Objective: To study the effect of inhibiting of DEK gene expression by RNA interference on proliferation and apoptosis of tongue squamous cell carcinoma. Methods: The expression of DEK gene in tongue squamous cell carcinoma was detected by real-time PCR. Cell line Tca8113 and CAL-27 were cultured in vitro. Negative control siRNA (negative control group) and DEK siRNA (transfection group) were transfected into cells, and blank control group was not special treated. After transfected for 48h, the proliferation, apoptosis and DEK, Bcl-2, Bax, PI3K, and p-Akt protein expression on Tca8113 and CAL-27 cells were detected by CCK8, flow cytometry, and Western blot. Results: The expression of DEK gene in squamous cell carcinoma of tongue was significantly higher than that in adjacent tissues (P<0.05). Compared with the blank control group, the expression of DEK significantly decreased after DEK-siRNA was transfected into Tca8113 and CAL-27 cells. Furthermore, cell proliferation activity was significantly decreased, apoptosis rate was significantly increased, the expressions of Bcl-2, PI3K, and p-Akt protein were significantly down regulated, and the expression of Bax protein was significantly increased (P<0.05). Conclusion: The inhibition of DEK gene expression can reduce the proliferation of tongue squamous cell carcinoma cells and induced apoptosis through PI3K/Akt signaling pathway.

Key words: DEK gene, Tongue squamous cell carcinoma, Proliferation, Apoptosis, Signaling pathway