Lung squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) is considered the frequent subtype of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and results in high mortality worldwide every year. Forkhead box S1 (FOXS1) is correlated to multiple cancers, but the role and the mechanism of FOXS1 in lung SCC are unclear. This study revealed that FOXS1 was low expressed in the lung SCC tissues by utilizing UALCAN and TIMER databases. Western blotting analysis was introduced to estimate the FOXS1 expression in the lung SCC cells. Functionally, overexpression of FOXS1 dramatically inhibited cell proliferation, migration, invasion, and epithelial-mesenchymal transition in the lung SCC cells. However, knockdown of FOXS1 exerted diverse effects on lung SCC cell progression. Moreover, FOXS1 overexpression suppressed tumor growth in nude mice remarkably. Furthermore, FOXS1 overexpression reduced the activity of Wnt/β-catenin signal, while FOXS1 silence reversed the roles notably. In conclusion, our present study proved that FOXS1 inhibited lung SCC development in vitro and in vivo might by modulating Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway.
Keywords: Epithelial–mesenchymal transition; Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway; forkhead box S1; lung squamous cell carcinoma; migration.