Background: Ovarian cancer is characterized by high metastatic potential and high mortality. More than 80% of primary ovarian malignancies are epithelial ovarian cancers. There is increasing evidence that Speckle-type POZ protein (SPOP) is highly correlated with the development of various types of cancer. However, the effects of SPOP on epithelial ovarian cancer and the associated molecular mechanisms remain unclear.
Materials and methods: We compared SPOP expression between epithelial ovarian cancer tissues and normal ovarian tissues by using immunohistochemical staining. To determine the role of SPOP in epithelial ovarian cancer cells, we overexpressed or knocked down SPOP in the epithelial ovarian cancer cell line OVCAR-3 using lentiviral vectors.
Results: Our results from the present study indicated that SPOP expression was significantly downregulated in human epithelial ovarian cancer and was associated with the FIGO stage and the histopathologic grading of the tumor. The overexpression and knockdown experiments revealed that SPOP inhibited proliferation while promoting apoptosis in ovarian cancer cells. Inhibition of SPOP mis-activated the Hedgehog (Hh) signaling pathway, thereby inhibiting apoptosis in ovarian cancer cells.
Conclusion: SPOP suppresses proliferation and promotes apoptosis in human ovarian cancer cells by inhibiting the Hh signaling pathway, offering the possibility of new approaches for the treatment of ovarian cancer.
Keywords: ovarian cancer, SPOP, Hedgehog signaling, apoptosis, proliferation