Loss of lamin A but not lamin C expression in epithelial ovarian cancer cells is associated with metastasis and poor prognosis.

OBJECTIVE

To elucidate the different roles of lamin A and lamin C in the metastasis of epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) by examining their expression in EOC tissues and cell lines and their correlations with clinicopathological features.

METHODS

The expression of lamin A and lamin C was assessed in ovarian tissues from 61 EOC patients and 13 normal, 14 benign controls, respectively, using immunohistochemistry. Two pairs of EOC cell lines: HO-8910, HO-8910PM, SKOV-3 and SKOV-3ip were also examined to see the differential expression patterns of lamin A and lamin C.

RESULTS

Lamin A expression was significantly lower in EOC tissues than that in normal and benign ovarian tissues (p<0.05), while lamin C expression was not. Lamin A expression level was closely associated with pathological grades, clinical stages, peritoneal metastasis and lymph node metastasis (all p<0.05). The progression-free survival rate of the EOC patients with low lamin A expression level was remarkably lower than that of the EOC patients with high expression level (p<0.05). Lamin A detected by PCR, Western Blot and immunocytochemistry also showed a significantly lower expression level in HO-8910PM than that in HO-8910 (p<0.05), but not for lamin C. There was no difference between SKOV-3 and SKOV-3ip cells.

CONCLUSIONS

The results suggested that loss of lamin A but not lamin C expression in EOC was related to metastasis and poor prognosis. Lamin A may play a critical role in the metastasis of EOC.