Human ovarian cancer cell morphology, motility, and proliferation are differentially influenced by autocrine TGFß superfamily signalling.

TGFß superfamily signalling participates in normal and pathophysiologic cellular processes. Despite several reports demonstrating active TGFß superfamily signalling pathways in OvCa cell lines and primary cultures, few studies examine their functional outcome. Herein we show that primary human ovarian cancer cells possess intact autocrine BMP, TGFß and activin signalling. Blocking autocrine signalling resulted in differential cellular responses affecting cellular morphology, motility and proliferation. Additionally, BMP4-induced alterations in morphology and motility are dependent on Smad signalling. These results suggest that a balance between BMP and TGFß/activin signalling may be altered to favour BMP signalling during ovarian cancer metastatic progression.