Copper Ion Transport Protein Expression In Relapsed And Resistant Human Ovarian Cancer Tissue

Objective. Ovarian cancer is a common female genital cancer, with highest fatality rate in gynecological malignancies. Although the complete cytoreductive combined with first-line paclitaxel and platinum chemotherapy improved the cure rate to ovarian cancer significantly, but there are still 55%-75% of patients relapse within three years. Anti-cancer drug resistance is the main reason for the poor prognosis. Previous studies have shown that alteration of intake and efflux of anti-cancer drug are the main reason of recurrence and drug resistance. Copper transporters not only involved in the metabolism of copper ions, but also involved in platinum anticancer drug influx and efflux. Less intake and over-efflux may reduce the accumulation of drug concentration in the cell which leading to drug resistance. Study of copper transporters in ovarian cancer tissue, and its relationship with ovarian cancer recurrence and drug resistance can further clarify the mechanism of anti-drug resistance, the establishment of early predicting systems of anti-cancer drug resistance and exploring new second-line anti-cancer drug of ovarian cancer are also needed.Methods. Ovarian tissues collected from Obstetrics and Gynecology Hospital of Fudan University tissue bank, including 21 cases of primary ovarian cancer,6 cases of recurrent ovarian cancer, and 10 cases of normal ovarian tissues. The protein expressions of hCTRl, ATP7a, ATP7b in the three groups were examined by immunohistochemistry SP method. Using Image-Pro plus image capture software to analyze the integral optical density (IOD) values in each case. SPSS statistical software was adapted to analyze IOD values and correlation.Results There was no significant difference in hCTR1 expression between primary ovarian cancer and recurrent ovarian cancer tissues (P> 0.05). ATP7a and ATP7b protein expression in the recurrent ovarian cancer showed a significantly higher than that in the normal and primary ovarian cancer group, the differences were statistically different (P <0.05)Conclusion The over expression of ATP7a and ATP7b in recurrent ovarian cancer tissue may involved in ovarian cancer recurrence and anti-cancer platin drug resistance; hCTR1 expression in primary and recurrent ovarian cancer tissues was not statistically significant, however, the function and mechanism of copper transporters remains to be further studied.