The present study aimed to investigate the clinical and
biological significance of Src‑associated in mitosis 68 kDa (Sam68) in
oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC). Immunohistochemical analysis was performed on tissue samples obtained from 77 patients with OSCC. Univariate analysis revealed that the high expression of Sam68 was significantly correlated with advanced pathological T stage (P=0.01), positive lymphovascular invasion (P=0.01), and pathological cervical
lymph node metastasis (P<0.01). Moreover, multivariate analysis demonstrated that the high expression of Sam68 was an independent predictive factor for cervical
lymph node metastasis (odds ratio, 4.39; 95% confidence interval, 1.49‑14.23; P<0.01). These results indicated that high Sam68 expression contributed to
tumor progression, especially cervical
lymph node metastasis, in OSCC.
mRNA sequencing was also performed to assess the changes in the transcriptome between OSCC cells with Sam68 knockdown and control cells with the aim of elucidating the
biological roles of Sam68. Gene Ontology enrichment analysis revealed that downregulated differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were concentrated in some biological processes related to epithelial‑mesenchymal transition. Among these DEGs, it was established that
vimentin was particularly downregulated in these cells. It was also confirmed that Sam68 knockdown reduced the motility of OSCC cells. Furthermore, the immunohistochemical study of
vimentin identified the association between
vimentin expression and Sam68 expression as well as cervical
lymph node metastasis. In conclusion, the present study suggested that the high expression of Sam68 may contribute to
metastasis by regulating
vimentin expression and a motile mesenchymal phenotype in OSCC.