Expression and Significance of Twist and E-cadherin in OvarianCancer Tissues

Objective: To investigate the expression of Twist and E-cadherin in ovarian cancer tissues as well as the roleof epithelial-mesenchymal transformation (EMT) in ovarian cancer metastasis.
Method: The expressions ofTwist and E-cadherin in 54 cases of ovarian cancer and paracancerous tissues were detected by Western blotting and reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction. We used RNA interference to silence Twist expression inhuman ovarian cancer cell line, and detected E-cadherin expression using Western blotting.
Results: There wasan increase in the relative abundance of Twist proteins and a decrease in E-cadherin in ovarian cancer comparedwith normal ovary tissues (P < 0.05). The expression levels of Twist and E-cadherin mRNA were 1.49 ± 0.53and 0.82 ± 0.24 in ovarian cancer, and 1.14 ± 0.38 and 1.08 ± 0.19 in paracancerous tissues, respectively. Thedifference between the indicators in ovarian cancer and in paracancerous tissues was statistically significant (P< 0.05). When the Twist expression was silenced in an ovarian cancer cell line, the expression of the E-cadherinprotein increased (P<0.05).
Conclusion: The expression of Twist is upregulated, whereas that of E-cadherin isdownregulated in ovarian cancer. EMT, mediated by Twist, may be correlated with ovarian cancer metastasis.