The Correlation between Twist2 Expression and Vascular Infiltration and Prog-nosis in Ovarian Cancer
Objective:To analyze the relationship between Twist2 and the prognosis and vascular infiltration of ovarian cancer patients,and to explore the role and mechanism of Twist2 in vascular infiltration of ovarian cancer.Methods:KM plotter was used to explore the correaltion between Twist2 mRNA expression and overall survival(OS),progression free survival(PFS)and post progression survival(PPS)in ovarian cancer.To analyze the cor-relation between Twist2 and vascular infiltration in ovarian cancer using the cancer genomics database cBioPor-tal.In vitro experiment:Transwell method was employed to determine the role of Twist2 in the invasion and migra-tion abilities of ovarian cancer cell CAOV3[blank group,negative control group(siNC group),siTwist2 group].Uti-lizing Realtime-PCR and Western blot to clarify the changes in Twist2 and VEGFC expression in CAOV3 cells af-ter downregulating Twist2 expression at the RNA and protein levels,respectively.Results:①Online data analysis of KM plotter showed that the ovarian cancer patients with high expression of Twist2 were associated with poor prognosis,with OS(HR 1.24,95%Cl 1.01-1.52),PFS(HR 1.39,95%CI 1.14-1.70)and PPS(HR 1.37,95%CI 1.08-1.74)all showing statistical significance(P<0.05).CBioportal analysis showed that Twist2 mRNA expression was positively correlated with vascular infiltration(r=0.93,P=0.001)and lymphatic infiltration(r=0.89,P=0.009)in ovarian cancer.②Compared with the blank group and siNC group,in vitro experiment Tran-swell assay showed that the invasion and migration ability of ovarian cancer cells in siTwist2 group was significant-ly reduced(P<0.05).In mRNA and protein level,Realtime-PCR and Western blot showed that compared with the blank group and siNC group,the expression of Twist2,as well as VEGFC,were significantly reduced in the siTwist2 group(P<0.05).Conclusions:The expression of Twist2 in ovarian cancer is closely related to tumor prognosis and vascular infiltration.After downregulating Twist2,the number of cells that migrate and invade is sig-nificantly reduced,and the expression of VEGFC is reduced.Twist2 can induce migration and invasion of ovarian cancer cells through VEGFC,which may be one of the indicators for prognosis evaluate and targeted therapy of ovarian cancer in future.