Objective The purpose of this article is to examine the effect of curcumin on the proliferation and metastasis of human tongue squamous cell carcinoma and analyze its mechanism. Methods SCC-4 were treated with curcumin of 0, 5, 10, 20, 30, 60, 100 μmol·L-1 in 24 h. MTT assay, Matrigel invasion assay, flow cytometry and fluorescence microscopy were used to examine the effect of curcumin on the growth and metastasis of SCC-4. cDNA microarray and RT-PCR were employed to analyze the expression of genes treated by curcumin. Results The results showed that curcumin could concentration-dependently inhibit SCC-4 cell proliferation at the concentration range from 20 to 100 μmol·L-1. Furthermore, Matrigel invasion assay indicated that curcumin can reduce SCC-4 cell invasion under the dosage of 20, 30, 60 μmol·L-1. Flow cytometry also showed that curcumin can influence the distribution of cell cycle of SCC-4 cell with the dosage of 20, 30, 60 μmol·L-1. And the dosage of 30 μmol·L-1 curcumin could lead to the recruitment of alpha-tubulin. cDNA microarray showed that 87 genes were activated and 198 genes were inhibited with the effect of curcumin. These results were validated by the real time quantitative RT-PCR. Conclusion According to the results, it suggests that curcumin has the potential as the leading compound for anti-cancer proliferation and invasion in oral cancer treatment, and cdc27, EGFR substrate 15, PPAR-alpha and H2A histone may play an important role among this multiple anticancer-targeting ability.
