S100A1 promotes cell proliferation and migration and is associated with lymph node metastasis in ovarian cancer.

S100A1 is a calcium-binding protein belonging to the family of S100 proteins, and is highly expressed in ovarian cancer. However, its role in ovarian cancer has not yet been fully elucidated. In this study, we examined S100A1 expression in ovarian cancer tissues and normal tissue controls and analyzed the correlation between S100A1 expression and clinicopathological parameters. We found that S100A1 expression was significantly upregulated in ovarian cancer tissues compared with fallopian and normal ovarian epithelium tissues and was significantly associated with lymph node metastasis and International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics (FIGO) stages and tumor grades. We then investigated the biological functions of S100A1 in ovarian cancer by cell proliferation, fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS), and migration and invasion assays. The results indicated that S100A1 enhanced the ovarian cancer cell proliferation and migration. Together, our findings demonstrated that S100A1 plays an important role in the malignancy of ovarian cancer, and serves as a useful marker for the detection of ovarian malignancy.