Objective: To find the key proteins associated with metastasis of ovarian cancer, and find potential diagnostic markers and therapeutic targets of this malignancy.
Methods: A comparative proteomic strategy, in a combination of two-dimensional electrophoresis separation and mass spectrometry identification, was adopted to search for proteome alternations in an ovarian cancer mother cell line HO-8910 and its highly metastatic cell subline HO-8910PM.
Results: Twenty-one significantly different spots (two-fold increase or decrease) were detected between the two cell lines, of which 17 candidate proteins were successfully identified and characterized. Compared with those in HO-8910 mother cell line, 16 proteins were significantly up-regulated, while 5 proteins down-regulated in the highly metastatic cell subline HO-8910PM. The seventeen identified proteins could be functionally classified into 7 groups as following: zinc finger protein, calcium-binding protein, DNA repair and synthesis protein, cell regulatory protein, metabolism-related protein, cell surface antigen, cell signals and transducing protein.
Conclusions: The results suggest that an obviously differential proteomic expression exists between the human ovarian cancer mother cell line HO-8910 and highly metastatic cell subline HO-8910PM. It provides a clue for further identification of metastasis-related proteins, novel diagnostic markers as well as therapeutic targets of this malignancy.