Analysis of the gene expression profile in response to human epididymis protein 4 in epithelial ovarian cancer cells

Currently, there are emerging multiple studies on human epididymis protein 4 (HE4) in ovarian cancer. HE4 possesses higher sensitivity and specificity than CA125 in the confirmative early diagnosis for ovarian cancer. Although much attention has been given to explore its clinical application, research of the basic mechanisms of HE4 in ovarian cancer are still unclear. In the present study, we provide fundamental data to identify full-scale differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in response to HE4 by use of human whole-genome microarrays in human epithelial ovarian cancer cell line ES-2 following overexpression and silencing of HE4. We found that a total of 717 genes were upregulated and 898 genes were downregulated in the HE4-overexpressing cells vs. the HE4-Mock cells, and 166 genes were upregulated and 285 were downregulated in the HE4-silenced cells vs. the HE4-Mock cells. An overlap of 16 genes consistently upregulated and 8 genes downregulated in response to HE4 were noted. These DEGs were involved in MAPK, steroid biosynthesis, cell cycle, the p53 hypoxia pathway, and focal adhesion pathways. Interaction network analysis predicted that the genes participated in the regulatory connection. Highly differential expression of the FOXA2, SERPIND1, BDKRD1 and IL1A genes was verified by quantitative real-time PCR in 4 cell line samples. Finally, SERPIND1 (HCII) was validated at the protein level by immunohistochemistry in 107 paraffin-embedded ovarian tissues. We found that SERPIND1 may act as a potential oncogene in the development of ovarian cancer. The present study displayed the most fundamental and full-scale data to show DEGs in response to HE4. These identified genes may provide a theoretical basis for investigations of the underlying molecular mechanism of HE4 in ovarian cancer.