Cutaneous
squamous cell carcinoma (cSCC) is a common malignant
tumor. Mammary
serine protease inhibitor (
Maspin), a member of
serpin family, has been reported as a
tumor suppressor in various
carcinomas. In this study, we detected the expression level of
Maspin in cSCC tissues by real-time PCR and western blotting, and found that
Maspin was downregulated in the cSCC tissues compared with the adjacent normal tissues. Moreover,
Maspin was stably overexpressed in A431 cells, and
CCK-8 assay, colony formation assay, Transwell assay, Hoechst staining and western blotting were carried out to detect the growth, proliferation, invasion, cell cycle and apoptosis of A431 cells. The results revealed that overexpression of
Maspin inhibited growth, proliferation, invasion and cell cycle G1/S/G2 transition and enhanced apoptosis of A431 cells. The
pro-apoptotic protein cleaved
caspase-3,
poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) and Bax increased, and the
anti-apoptotic protein Bcl-2 decreased after
Maspin overexpression. Therefore, we demonstrated that
Maspin suppressed growth, proliferation and invasion by delaying cell cycle transition and promoting apoptosis in cSCC cells, which may provide new insights for the clinical diagnosis and
therapy of cSCC.