[Human pituitary tumor transforming gene 1 expression in ovarian carcinoma and its clinical significance].

Background & Objective: Human pituitary tumor transforming gene 1 (hPTTG1) is a newly identified oncogene. We performed a large-scale screening survey to identify related genes expressed in advanced and poorly differentiated serous ovarian carcinoma using cDNA microarray analysis, and found that hPTTG1 is one of highly up-regulated genes in ovarian carcinoma. This study was to examine hPTTG1 mRNA and protein expression in various epithelial ovarian carcinoma,analyze the relationship of its expression level with FIGO stage and histological grade, and explore the functional role of hPTTG1 in ovarian carcinoma pathogenesis.
Methods: HPTTG1 mRNA expression in 27 cases of epithelial human ovarian carcinoma, and 4 cases of normal ovary was assessed with non-competitive reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), and hPTTG1 protein expression in these 27 cases of human ovarian carcinoma, and 18 cases of normal ovary was examined by immunohistochemistry.
Results: HPTTG1 mRNA expression level in normal ovary was low, while in ovarian carcinoma was significantly higher than that in normal counterparts (P < 0.01). Fold increase of ovarian cancer tissues to normal ovary tissues is 1.1-4.8 (median 2.4).HPTTG1 mRNA high expression level was related to poor tumor differentiation (r = 0.686, P < 0.05), but the correlation with FIGO stage was not detected. HPTTG1 protein was expressed in all cases of ovarian carcinoma, but not in normal ovaries.
Conclusions: Increased hPTTG1 expression may be an important factor involved in early tumorogenesis, and may be associated with poor tumor differentiation. HPTTG1 could be a potential molecular marker of epithelial ovarian carcinoma.