SENP1 promotes the proliferation, migration and invasion of HNSCC in vitro. (A and C) reverse transcription-quantitative PCR revealed transfection efficiency of sh-SENP1 and oe-SENP1. (B) Analysis and evaluation of the impact of knocking down or overexpressing SENP1 on the proliferation ability of HNSCC cells through Cell Counting Kit-8. (D and E) Western blotting verified sh-SENP1l and oe-SENP1 transfection efficiency. (F and G) Transwell assays were conducted to examine the cell migration and invasion ability in HNSCC cells. (H and I) Wound healing assay was employed to detect the cell migration ability of HNSCC cells. Unpaired student's t-test for two-group comparison: *P<0.05, **P<0.01 and ***P<0.001. One-way ANOVA for multi-group comparisons: *P<0.05, **P<0.01 and ***P<0.001. Bonferroni's test for multi-group comparisons: *P<0.05, **P<0.01 and ***P<0.001. SENP1, SUMO-specific peptidase 1; HNSCC, head and neck squamous cell carcinoma; Ctrl, control; shRNA, short hairpin RNA; NC, negative control; oe, overexpressing. Scale bars, 100 µm.