DHA resulted in proliferation inhibition and migration, and induced apoptosis in HNSCC cells.

<p>(A) FaDu, Cal-27, and Hep-2 cells were treated with indicated concentrations of DHA for 24 or 48h, and cell viability was tested via MTT assay. IC50 values of DHA were calculated for the three cell lines. (B) DHA induced apoptosis in HNSCC cell. Three HNSCC cell lines were incubated with indicated concentrations of DHA for 24 h, followed by flow cytometric analysis with Annexin V-FITC and propidium iodide (PI) labeling. (C)DHA induced inhibition of migration of HNSCC cells. Cells were incubated with 40μM (FaDu) or 20μM (Cal-27and Hep-2) DHA or DMSO. The wound healing capacity was measured at 0, 12, 24, and 48 h. Data were expressed as means ± SD (left and middle panels). Simultaneous determination of levels of MMP-2, MMP-9 and p-STAT3 was conducted (right panel). (D) Effects of STAT3 inhibition by DHA on expression of downstream proteinsMcl-1, Bcl-xl, Cyclin-D1 and VEGF in HNSCC cells as determined by Western blotting. All experiments were performed in triplicates.