Melatonin Inhibits Reactive Oxygen Species-Driven Proliferation, Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transition, and Vasculogenic Mimicry in Oral Cancer.

Globally, oral cancer is the most common type of head and neck cancers. Melatonin elicits inhibitory effects on oral cancer; however, the biological function of melatonin and underlying mechanisms remain largely unknown. In this study, we found that melatonin impaired the proliferation and apoptosis resistance of oral cancer cells by inactivating ROS-dependent Akt signaling, involving in downregulation of cyclin D1, PCNA, and Bcl-2 and upregulation of Bax. Melatonin inhibited the migration and invasion of oral cancer cells by repressing ROS-activated Akt signaling, implicating with the reduction of Snail and Vimentin and the enhancement of E-cadherin. Moreover, melatonin hampered vasculogenic mimicry of oral cancer cells through blockage of ROS-activated extracellular-regulated protein kinases (ERKs) and Akt pathways involving the hypoxia-inducible factor 1α. Consistently, melatonin retarded tumorigenesis of oral cancer in vivo. Overall, these findings indicated that melatonin exerts antisurvival, antimotility, and antiangiogenesis effects on oral cancer partly by suppressing ROS-reliant Akt or ERK signaling.

Strong bonding strength between HA and (NH4)2S2O8-treated carbon/carbon composite by hydrothermal treatment and induction heating.

Carbon/carbon composite with hydroxyapatite (HA) coating is an attractive material in the dental and orthopedic fields, but the reported bonding strength between them was very poor. In this study, a compact crystalline HA coating on (NH(4))(2)S(2)O(8)-treated C/C substrate about 10 microm in width was obtained by hydrothermal treatment and induction heating. The microstructure, composition and morphologies of the as-prepared coatings were identified by X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy and energy dispersive spectroscopy. A strong shear strength averaging 74.2 MPa between C/C substrate and HA was achieved and adhesion failures were observed more frequently than cohesion failures. The coating adhesion measured using a scratch test was 23 N and the reasons for this are discussed.