Abstract
BackgroundPAX8 is a member of the paired box (Pax) multigene family of transcription factors, which are involved in the developmental and tissue-specific control of the expression of several genes in both vertebrates and invertebrates. Previously, several studies reported that PAX8 is expressed at high levels in specific types of tumors. In particular, PAX8 has been recently reported to be conspicuously expressed in human ovarian cancer, but the functional role of PAX8 in the carcinogenesis of this type of tumor has not been addressed. In this study, we investigated the contribution of PAX8 in ovarian cancer progression.MethodsStable PAX8 depleted ovarian cancer cells were generated using short hairpin RNA (shRNA) constructs. PAX8 mRNA and protein were detected by RT-PCR, immunoblot and immunofluorescence. Cell proliferation, motility and invasion potential of PAX8 silenced cells were analyzed by means of growth curves, wound healing and Matrigel assays. In addition, PAX8 knockdown and control cells were injected into nude mice for xenograft tumorigenicity assays. Finally, qPCR was used to detect the expression levels of EMT markers in PAX8-overexpressing and control cells.ResultsHere, we show that PAX8 plays a critical role in the migration, invasion and tumorigenic ability of ovarian cancer cells. Our results show that RNA interference-mediated knockdown of PAX8 expression in SKOV-3 ovarian cancer cells produces a significant reduction of cell proliferation, migration ability and invasion activity compared with control parental SKOV-3 cells. Moreover, PAX8 silencing strongly suppresses anchorage-independent growth in vitro. Notably, tumorigenesis in vivo in a nude mouse xenograft model is also significantly inhibited.ConclusionsOverall, our results indicate that PAX8 plays an important role in the tumorigenic phenotype of ovarian cancer cells and identifies PAX8 as a potential new target for the treatment of ovarian cancer.
Highlights
PAX8 is a member of the paired box (Pax) multigene family of transcription factors, which are involved in the developmental and tissue-specific control of the expression of several genes in both vertebrates and invertebrates
We first examined the expression of PAX8 in several ovarian cancer cell lines by RT-PCR and immunoblotting (Figure 1A)
PAX8 is expressed at high levels in SKOV-3, TOV-21G and OVCAR-3 ovarian cancer cell lines, whereas it is undetectable in two primary normal ovarian cultures and in the TOV-112D and A2780 ovarian cancer cell lines
Summary
PAX8 is a member of the paired box (Pax) multigene family of transcription factors, which are involved in the developmental and tissue-specific control of the expression of several genes in both vertebrates and invertebrates. Several studies reported that PAX8 is expressed at high levels in specific types of tumors. PAX8 has been recently reported to be conspicuously expressed in human ovarian cancer, but the functional role of PAX8 in the carcinogenesis of this type of tumor has not been addressed. Ovarian cancer accounts for approximately 3% of all cancers in women and has the highest mortality of all cancers of the female reproductive system. Malignant surface epithelial tumors (carcinomas) are the most common ovarian cancers, accounting for 90% of cases. These tumors differentiate during malignant transformation into four major histotypes: serous, mucinous, endometrioid and clear cell.
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