The present study was performed to evaluate the significance of the CS1 site of fibronectin in OSCC pathogenesis. CS1 has been previously associated with increased cell adhesion in human lymphoma, rhabdomyosarcoma, and mouse melanoma cells [
26]. Although the physiological significance of the molecular diversity of fibronectin at its three variable regions (ED-A, ED-B and IIICS) remains poorly understood, several lines of evidence indicate that splicing variations at the IIICS region modulate the adhesive and migrating properties of cells [
13,
16,
27]. However, none of the studies reported to date have explored the role of the CS1 site in OSCC pathogenesis. Our data showed that alternative splicing of the IIICS region of fibronectin was deregulated in oral cancer tissues with a significant increase in the CS1 isoform. The importance of CS1 in tumorigenesis emerged from the tissue microarray data showcasing a statistically significant opposite relationship of staining intensity for CS1 between OSCC and normal oral tissues. There was no significant difference in total fibronectin expression between normal and OSCC tissues. The higher level of CS1 staining exhibited by most of the OSCC tissues in contrast to the lower level of staining in the normal tissues and its cytoplasmic preferential localization supports a role for CS1 in OSCC pathogenesis. Also, although, all levels of CS-1 expression were present in the various OSCC tissue samples, low-grade tumors stained at a higher level of intensity compared to that of high grade tumors, suggesting that CS1 is involved in the early stages of tumorigenesis. Higher CS1 protein expression but not total fibronectin levels in OSCC cell lines compared to primary keratinocytes further validated the importance of CS1 in this process. Other investigators have shown that the relative abundance of fibronectin mRNA containing the CS1 sequence was significantly increased in both fetal and cancerous liver tissue, although it was not altered in non-malignant tissues derived from chronic hepatitis and cirrhosis patients [
28]. Furthermore, the CS1 peptide increases cell adhesion of human epithelial carcinoma (A431) [
29] and leukemic monocyte lymphoma cells (U937), and a CS1 blocking peptide (VLA4 inhibitor) or α4β1 function-blocking monoclonal antibodies inhibited cell adhesion and invasion by U937 and lung tumor cells [
17,
30]. In addition, CS1 isoforms are present on the synovial endothelium of rheumatoid arthritis patients, and adhesion of T lymphoblastoid cells to this endothelium could be abrogated by an anti-α4 integrin antibody or by a synthetic CS1 peptide (VLA4 inhibitor) [
31]. Further, our findings suggest that CS1-mediated cell adhesion in OSCC cells was regulated by integrin α4. Indeed, we have previously shown these OSCC cells express the VLA4 receptor, which therefore can enable interactions via CS1 [
25,
32].
Cell migration is essential for invasion and metastasis of cancer cells [
33]. It involves the assembly and disassembly of focal adhesion complexes. These integrin-linked complexes are the primary sites of adhesion between cells and the surrounding extracellular matrix [
34]. FAK plays a central role in the turnover of these adhesion sites [
35]. FAK controls the dynamic process of integrin-linked adhesions and is an important regulator of cell migration. Increased FAK expression and activity are frequently correlated with malignant or metastatic disease and poor patient prognosis [
36‐
39]. Previously we demonstrated that an altered fibronectin matrix induces anoikis of human squamous cell carcinoma cells by suppressing phosphorylation of FAK and ERK [
25]. Our present results, which show that FAK suppression blocks CS1-mediated OSCC cell migration, further supports the concept that CS1 promotes OSCC cell adhesion and migration in a FAK rich environment, and this may contribute to tumorigenesis.