Aberrant expression of pim-3 promotes proliferation and migration of ovarian cancer cells.

Pim kinase-3(Pim-3), a member of serine/threonine protein kinases, has been implicated in multiple human cancers and involved in Myc-induced tumorigenesis. However, little is known regarding its expression and biological function in human ovarian cancer. In this study we showed that the clinical significance and biological functions of Pim-3 in ovarian cancer and found that higher Pim-3 mRNA level are detected in ovarian cancer tissues than those in normal ovarian tissues. There are significant correlations between higher Pim-3 expression levels with the FIGO stage, histopathological subtypes, and distant metastasis in ovarian cancer patients. Lentivirus-mediated gene overexpression of Pim-3 significantly promotes the proliferation and migration of SKOV3 cell lines. Furthermore, MACC1 and Pim-3 expression were significantly correlated in human ovarian cancer cells, and overexpression of Pim-3 in ovary cancer cells increased MACC1 mRNA and protein expression. The data indicate that Pim-3 acts as a putative oncogene in ovary cancer and could be a viable diagnostic and therapeutic target for ovarian cancer.