The autophagy protein LC3A correlates with hypoxia and is a prognostic marker of patient survival in clear cell ovarian cancer.
J Pathol
; 228(4): 437-47, 2012 Dec.
Article
em En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-22926683
ABSTRACT
Clear cell ovarian cancer histotypes exhibit metabolic features associated with resistance to hypoxia and glucose deprivation-induced cell death. This metabolic characteristic suggests that clear cell ovarian cancers activate survival mechanisms not typical of other epithelial ovarian cancers. Here we demonstrate that microtubule-associated protein 1 light chain 3A (LC3A), a marker of autophagy, is related to hypoxia and poor prognosis in clear cell ovarian cancer. In 485 ovarian tumours, we found that LC3A was significantly associated with poor progression-free (p = 0.0232), disease-specific (p = 0.0011) and overall patient survival (p = 0.0013) in clear cell ovarian cancer patients, but not in other subtypes examined. LC3A was an independent prognostic marker of reduced disease-specific [hazard ratio (HR) 2.55 (95% CI 1.21-5.37); p = 0.014] and overall survival [HR 1.95 (95% CI 1.00-3.77); p = 0.049] in patients with clear cell ovarian carcinoma. We also found a strong link between autophagy and hypoxia as LC3A staining revealed a significant positive association with the hypoxia-related proteins carbonic anhydrase-IX and HIF-1α. The functional link between hypoxia and autophagy was demonstrated using clear cell and high-grade serous cell lines that were subjected to hypoxia or hypoxia + glucose deprivation. Clear cell carcinoma lines displayed greater autophagy induction and were subsequently more sensitive to inhibition of autophagy under hypoxia compared to the high-grade serous lines. Together, our findings indicate that hypoxia-induced autophagy may be crucial to the clinical pathology of clear cell ovarian cancer and is a potential explanation for histological subtype differences in patient disease progression and outcomes.
Palavras-chave
Texto completo:
1
Coleções:
01-internacional
Base de dados:
MEDLINE
Assunto principal:
Neoplasias Ovarianas
/
Autofagia
/
Adenocarcinoma de Células Claras
/
Proteínas Associadas aos Microtúbulos
Tipo de estudo:
Observational_studies
/
Prognostic_studies
/
Risk_factors_studies
Limite:
Adult
/
Aged
/
Aged80
/
Female
/
Humans
/
Middle aged
Idioma:
En
Revista:
J Pathol
Ano de publicação:
2012
Tipo de documento:
Article
País de afiliação:
Canadá