Protein expression patterns in cancer-associated fibroblasts and cells undergoing the epithelial-mesenchymal transition in ovarian cancers.

Protein expression patterns in cancer-associated fibroblasts and cells undergoing the epithelial-mesenchymal transition in ovarian cancers. Oncotarget. 2018 Jun 08;9(44):27514-27524 Authors: Fukagawa D, Sugai T, Osakabe M, Suga Y, Nagasawa T, Itamochi H, Sugiyama T Abstract Recent studies have shown that cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) and the epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) contribute to invasive and metastatic abilities of ovarian cancer (OC) cells. In the present study, we attempted to identify the role of CAF- and EMT-related proteins in OCs, including serous carcinoma, mucinous carcinoma, endometrioid carcinoma and clear cell carcinoma using an immunohistochemical approach. The following CAF-related markers were used: CD10, podoplanin, fibroblast activating protein (FAP), platelet derived growth factor receptor (PDGFRα), PDGFRβ, S100A4 and α-smooth muscle actin (α-SMA). In addition, the following EMT-related markers were investigated: Slug, TWIST1 and ZEB1We performed hierarchical cluster analysis to group the samples according to their scoring. Subgroup 1 was characterized by high expression of CD10, podoplanin, α-SMA, Slug and ZEB1, whereas subgroup 2 was closely associated with high expression of podoplanin, PDGFRα, PDGFRβ, α-SMA, and Slug. In addition, marked expression of CD10 was observed in subgroup 3. High expression of α-SMA was a distinctive feature in subgroup 4, and expression of podoplanin and ...
Source: Oncotarget - Category: Cancer & Oncology Tags: Oncotarget Source Type: research