The effect of green tea catechin on Focal adhesion kinase (FAK) of oral squamous cell carcinoma cell line

Abstract

Green tea has been reported to have various biological effects, such as inhibition of tumor invasion, inhibition of cell proliferation, apoptosis. Although epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG) and epicatechin (EC) are major components of green tea flavanol, their effect on intra-cellular signal transduction is unknown, Interleukin-6 (IL-6) is a cytokine that influences cellular activation. To determine the influence of IL-6 and EGCG/EC on cellular signal transduction, we investigated tyrosin phosphorylation of Jun-N-terminal kinase (JNK) and Focal adhesion kinase (Fak) on HSC 4 cells treated with IL-6/sIL-6 R and/or EGCG/EC. We found that EGCG./EC induced upregulation of JNK phosphorylation and inhibited Fak tyrosine phosphorylation. It also inhibited matrixmetalloproteteinease activity of HSC 4 cells. These results suggest that EGCG may be useful as an antitumor agent.