Two populations of TSPO binding sites in oral cancer SCC-15 cells

Oral cancer mortality and morbidity rates remain high. The main inducer of oral cancer is cigarette smoke (CS). Translocator protein 18kDa (TSPO) was shown to play a role in carcinogenesis. We characterized TSPO binding sites in human oral cancer cell line SCC-15 and examined effect of CS on TSPO binding. We exposed SCC-15 human squamous cells to cigarette smoke. [³H]PK 11195 binding results were assessed in cells confluent for one day. To characterize the number of population sites, a custom written Matlab program compared Pearson linear correlation coefficients between all points in the Scatchard plot. Using [³H]PK 11195 as a radio ligand, we found that TSPO binding sites are not uniform, but separated into two sub-populations, one with high affinity (respective Kd and Bmax values of 1.40±0.08nM and 1586±48 fmol/mg protein), another with lower affinity (respective Kd and Bmax values of 61±5nM and 26260±1050 fmol/mg protein). We demonstrate rapid decrease in TSPO binding to the high affinity site induced by exposure to CS; specifically, significant 36% decrease in binding after 30min CS exposure (p<0.05), and 69% decrease after 2h CS exposure (p<0.05). Association between TSPO and CS exposure may contribute to understanding the underlying mechanism of oral carcinogenesis.