Circadian rhythm characteristics of oral squamous cell carcinoma growth in an orthotopic xenograft model

Ningbo Zhao,^* Hong Tang,^* Kai Yang, Dan Chen

Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, the First Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing, China

^*These authors contributed equally to this work

Background: Recent studies show that circadian rhythm changes are closely related to the occurrence and development of various tumors, such as breast, liver, and prostate. However, there are significant differences in circadian rhythm between different tumors. At present, the circadian rhythm characteristics of oral cancer remain unknown. The purpose of this study is to investigate the circadian rhythm characteristics of the in vivo growth of oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC).
Materials and methods: Thirty-two nude mice were placed under 12-hour light/12-hour dark cycles. The human OSCC cell line BcaCD885 was inoculated in the cheek of nude mice. After 3 weeks, eight mice were sacrificed at four time points, including 4 hours after light onset (HALO), 10 HALO, 16 HALO, and 22 HALO, during a period of 24 hours. The volume of excised tumors was measured and the proliferative index (PI) and apoptotic index (AI) of tumor cells were determined by flow cytometry. A cosine analysis method was used to determine whether the tumor volume, PI, and AI obeyed a circadian rhythm.
Results: There was a significant circadian rhythm in the tumor volume and PI of OSCC cells. For the tumor volume, there were significant differences between the four time points. The peak and trough values of the tumor volume appeared at 3.23 HALO and 15.23 HALO, whereas the peak and trough values of PI appeared at 6.60 HALO and 18.16 HALO, respectively. However, there was no circadian rhythm in the AI of tumor cells, despite significant differences between the four time points.
Conclusion: This study demonstrates, for the first time, that the tumor volume and PI of in vivo growing OSCC undergo circadian rhythms. These results support the assertion that time factor should be considered in the occurrence, development, treatment, efficacy evaluation and pathophysiology of OSCC.

Keywords: oral carcinoma, proliferation, apoptosis