High expression of PXDN is associated with poor prognosis and promotes proliferation, invasion as well as migration in ovarian cancer.

Abstract

Peroxidasin (PXDN) is an extracellular matrix protein with peroxidase activity. PXDN has been reported to participate in the processes of epithelial mesenchymal transition. However, the roles of PXDN in progression of cancers are still rare. Expression profiles of PXDN in ovarian cancer (OC) tissues were obtained from GEO and TCGA database. Quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) was performed to measure the expression of PXDN in OC cells. Kaplan-Meier method was used to analyze the overall survival of OC patients. Furthermore, effects of PXDN knockdown on the proliferation, invasion as well as migration of HEY cells were examined by Cell Counting kit-8 (CCK-8), wound healing and transwell assay. Additionally, western blot assay was conducted to detect the levels of several key proteins in PI3K/Akt pathway. PXDN was highly expressed in OC tissues and cells. OC Patients with high PXDN expression showed poorer overall survival rate compared to the OC patients with low PXDN expression. The results of the present study demonstrated that knockdown of PXDN significantly suppressed the proliferation, invasion and migration of HEY cells. In addition, after silencing PXDN in HEY cells, the expression levels of the key protein phosphorylation in PI3K/Akt pathway were obviously decreased, including p-PI3K and p-Akt, that resulting in the inhibition of PI3K/Akt pathway activation. PXDN might play a promoter role in the proliferation, invasion and migration of OC cells through regulating the activation of PI3K/Akt pathway. Therefore, PXDN might be regarded as a potential target for OC therapy.