Carcinogenesis Advance Access originally published online on September 16, 2008
Carcinogenesis 2009 30(1):114-121; doi:10.1093/carcin/bgn215
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Tumor suppressor effect of follistatin-like 1 in ovarian and endometrial carcinogenesis—a differential expression and functional analysis
1 Department of Pathology
2 Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, The University of Hong Kong, Queen Mary Hospital, Pokfulam Road, Hong Kong, China
* To whom correspondence should be addressed. Tel: +86 852 2855 4876; Fax: +86 852 2872 5197; Email: anycheun{at}hkucc.hku.hk
Endometrial and ovarian cancers are the most common and the most lethal gynecologic malignancies worldwide, respectively. By performing differential expression analysis using annealing control primerTM-based reverse transcription (RT)–polymerase chain reaction (PCR) on pooled complementary DNA (cDNA) from 45 endometrial and 36 ovarian cancers and their non-tumor samples, reduced expression of the follistatin-like 1 (FSTL1) was identified. Downregulation of FSTL1 was further confirmed on individual samples and cell lines by quantitative real-time RT–PCR and western blotting. For in vitro functional study, full-length cDNA of FSTL1 was cloned and transiently transfected into the ovarian cancer cell line Ovca420 and endometrial cancer cell line AN3CA. 3-(4,5-Dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyl tetrazolium bromide assay and cell count demonstrated significantly slower proliferation rate. By terminal uridine deoxynucleotidyl transferase dUTP nick end labeling and flow cytometric analysis, higher apoptotic activity and a remarkable increase in sub-G1 cell population were observed in transfected cells, suggesting that FSTL1 induced apoptosis in cancer cells. Subsequent messenger RNA and protein expression analysis on downstream apoptotic molecules revealed upregulation and/or activation of FAS, FASLG, TRADD, Caspase-3, Caspase-7 and PARP by FSTL1 transfection, suggesting that FSTL1-induced apoptosis may be initiated mainly by FAS/FASLG death receptor–ligand binding. Cell migration and invasion assays demonstrated a remarkably lower cell migration and invasion capability in FSTL1-transfected cells in relation to downregulation of matrix metallopeptidase-2. Our findings suggested that a tumor suppressor role of FSTL1 may be important in ovarian and endometrial carcinogenesis.
Abbreviations: ACP, annealing control primer; cDNA, complementary DNA; EmCA, endometrial carcinoma; FSTL1, follistatin-like 1; MMP, matrix metallopeptidase; mRNA, messenger RNA; OvCA, ovarian carcinoma; PCR, polymerase chain reaction; RT, reverse transcription
Received May 5, 2008; revised September 6, 2008; accepted September 7, 2008.