Title

Gene expression analysis of epithelial-mesenchymal transition markers in oral submucous fibrosis fibroblasts treated with arecoline

Authors

Jigar P Thakkar¹, Gopal Srivastava², Khushali Shah³*, Vipin Arora⁴, Mony Behera⁵ & Sameer Gupta⁶

Affiliation

¹Department of Dentistry, GMERS Medical College, Vadnagar, Gujarat, India; ²Department of Oral Medicine and Radiology, Government Dental College, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, India; ³Department of Oral and maxillofacial Pathology, K.M. Shah Dental College and Hospital, Sumandeep Vidyapeeth Deemed to be university, Vadodara, Gujarat, India; ⁴Department of Restorative Dental Sciences, Faculty of Dentistry, Taif University, Taif, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia; ⁵Department of Oral Medicine and Radiology, Kalinga Institute of Dental Sciences (KIDS), Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology (KIIT) Deemed to be University, Bhubaneswar-751024, Odisha, India; ⁶Department of Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery, Inderprastha Dental College and Hospital, Sahibabad, Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh, India; *Corresponding author

Email

Jigar P Thakkar - E-mail: jigarthakkar173@gmail.com
Gopal Srivastava - E-mail: gopalsrivastava45@gmail.com
Khushali Shah - E-mail: shahkhushali52@gmail.com
Vipin Arora - E-mail: vipinendodontist@gmail.com
Mony Behera - E-mail: monybehera99@gmail.com
Sameer Gupta - E-mail: sameer.gupta83@yahoo.in

Article Type

Research Article

Date

Received October 1, 2025; Revised October 31, 2025; Accepted October 31, 2025, Published October 31, 2025

Abstract

Oral submucous fibrosis (OSF), a potentially malignant disorder, is strongly linked to areca nut consumption, with arecoline inducing epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) in fibroblasts. Therfeore, it is of interest to investigate EMT marker expression in OSF fibroblasts exposed to arecoline and assessed the inhibitory effects of curcumin and epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG). Primary fibroblasts from OSF and normal mucosa were treated and EMT markers were analyzed by RT-qPCR, Western blotting and wound healing assays. Arecoline decreased E-cadherin and increased N-cadherin, vimentin, α-SMA, Snail, Twist and migration rate, whereas co-treatment with curcumin or EGCG significantly reversed these effects, with curcumin showing greater efficacy. Thus, we show that curcumin and EGCG inhibit arecoline-induced EMT and may serve as potential therapeutic agents in OSF management.

Keywords

Oral submucous fibrosis, epithelial-mesenchymal transition, arecoline, curcumin, EGCG, fibroblasts

Citation

Thakkar et al. Bioinformation 21(10): 3871-3875 (2025)

Edited by

Hiroj Bagde

ISSN

0973-2063

Publisher

Biomedical Informatics

License

This is an Open Access article which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. This is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License.