Page 124 - D. Cancer biology

[D. Cancer biology-77]

Mesothelial-to-mesenchymal transition induced by

macrophages plays a role in ovarian cancer cell invasion

Ju-Yeon Choi¹˙#, Jin-Hyeong Lee¹˙²˙#, Jung-Hye Choi¹˙²˙*

¹Life and Nanopharmaceutical Sciences, Kyung Hee University, Seoul 02447, South Korea, ²College of Pharmacy,

College of Pharmacy, Seoul 02447, South Korea

Peritoneal dissemination is a common characteristic of ovarian cancer metastasis. Recently, an increasing number
of studies have suggested that peritoneal mesothelial cells turn into carcinoma-associated fibroblasts through

mesothelial-to-mesenchymal transition (MMT), which plays a role in ovarian cancer metastasis. We found that

macrophages induce the MMT of MeT5A mesothelial cells and the macrophage-stimulated MeT5A cells (M-MeT5A)
became markedly invasive. In addition, TGF-β1 secreted from macrophages induces MMT, stimulates the invasion
of MeT5A cells, and increases the expression of a non-coding RNA 886 (nc886), which has been implicated in poor

prognosis of patients with ovarian cancer. Moreover, we demonstrated that nc886 overexpression significantly
induces MMT and increases the invasion of Met5A cells. More importantly, the interaction of M-MeT5A cells and

ovarian cancer cells enhances their invasion in co-culture. Taken together, these results suggest that MMT of
mesothelial cells induced by macrophages may involve in ovarian cancer cell invasion.