[In vitro effect of taurolidine on squamous cell carcinoma in the oral cavity]. / In-vitro-Effekt von Taurolidin auf Plattenepithelkarzinomzellen der Mundhöhle.

Taurolidine (Taurolin) is a derivative of the amino acid taurine, successfully used in the treatment of peritonitis. In vitro and in vivo studies have shown that taurolidine inhibits cell proliferation and induces apoptosis in a variety of tumor cell lines. At present there are no published studies on the use of taurolidine in the treatment of squamous cell carcinoma. Our aim was to examine the inhibition of cell proliferation and induction of apoptosis in cell lines SCC 4 and SCC 15 treated with taurolidine in concentrations of 0.01%, 0.1%, and 0.5%. Analogue to the present investigations on adenocarcinoma cell lines, we used toxic antiseptic povidone iodine in the same concentration as for the reference group. Untreated cells were used as a control group. The cells were incubated with taurolidine or povidone iodine once for 2 h at 37 degrees C in 5% CO(2). Cell proliferation was assessed using WST-1 labeling kit after 3, 24, 48, 72, and 96 h. The additional measurement of cell apoptosis was examined using ELISA(PLUS) cell death detection kit and performed after 0, 24, and 48 h. The findings showed a significant inhibition of cell proliferation and induction of apoptosis in taurolidine-treated cells SCC 4 and SCC 15 in contrast to the reference group treated with povidone iodine or the untreated control group.

Diagnostic and prognostic relevance of expression of human telomerase subunits in oral cancer.

Telomerase activity (TA) is associated with most malignant human tumors but is not detected in normal somatic cells with a few exceptions. Three major subunits (hTR, hTP1 and hTERT) of telomerase have been identified. To investigate the clinical implications of the mRNA detection of these components as useful diagnostic and prognostic markers in oral cancer, we examined TA, hTR, hTP1 and hTERT mRNA expressions in 46 oral squamous cell carcinomas (OSCC) and 15 normal oral mucosal tissues from healthy volunteers using a highly sensitive TRAP assay and RT PCR. In all specimens hTR and hTP1 mRNA were detected regardless whether TA was expressed or not. On the contrary, a significant correlation between hTERT expression and TA was shown indicating that the activity of telomerase could be regulated by the extent of hTERT transcription. In addition, hTERT expression showed close association to malignancies. None of the normal mucosal specimens expressed the hTERT subunit, but 76% (35/46) of the tumor specimens did. None of other clinico-pathological and prognostic parameters showed significant relationship with TA or hTERT expression. These results suggest that the detection of hTERT expression may be another useful diagnostic marker, especially for early detection of OSCC, and for distinguishing healthy tissues from neoplastically transformed ones.