Adrenomedullin expression in epithelial ovarian cancers and promotes HO8910 cell migration associated with upregulating integrin α5β1 and phosphorylating FAK and paxillin

In this study, we characterized the expression and function of AM in epithelial ovarian cancer using immunohistochemistry staining. Exogenous AM and small interfering RNA (siRNA) specific for AM receptor CRLR were treated to EOC cell line HO8910. Wound healing assay and flow cytometry were used to measure the migration ability and expression of integrin α5 of HO8910 cells after above treatments. Western blot was used to examine the phosphorylation of FAK and paxillin.We found that patients with high AM expression showed a higher incidence of metastasis, larger residual size of tumors after cytoreduction and shorter disease-free and overall survival time. Exogenous AM induced ovarian cancer cell migration in time- and dose- dependent manners. AM upregulated the expression of integrin α5 and phosphorylation of FAK, paxillin as well.Our results suggested that AM contributed to the progression of EOC and had additional roles in EOC cell migration by activating the integrin α5β1 signaling pathway. Therefore, we presumed that AM could be a potential molecular therapeutic target for ovarian carcinoma.Epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) is the sixth most common cancer and the fifth leading cause of cancer mortality in women worldwide [1]. This lethal gynecological malignancy is commonly diagnosed at a late stage due to the silent early stage and easily metastasis. Many advances took place in the pathological study and in understanding the mechanisms involved in EOC progression, details still need further investigations [2,3]. Therefore, this is an urgent need of more effective and new molecular targeted therapies for EOC.Adrenomedullin (AM) is a 52-amino-acid peptide first isolated from human pheochromocytoma [4]. It belongs to a family of peptides with calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) and Amylin [5]. AM was identified as a major regulator of carcinogenesis and tumor progression, and autocrine loop of AM was targeted as new strategies against human cancers [6-8]. AM gene