ERRα Expression in Ovarian Cancer and Promotes Ovarian Cancer Cells Migration in Vitro

Purpose: Ovarian cancer is one of the common gynecological malignancies, which is prone to metastasize and thus causes a high fatality rate. Estrogen-related receptor alpha (ERRα) is highly expressed in various malignant tumors. Our objective was to explore the impact of ERRα expression on the progression of ovarian cancer. Methods: The correlation between ERRα expression level and clinical pathological parameters in ovarian cancer tissues were analysed via cancer public database CPTAC. The expression level of ERRα in ovarian cancer cells were confirmed by RT-qPCR and Western Blot methods. The cellular ERRα expression was up-regulated via lentivirus transfection and down-regulated via specific antagonist. The invasion and metastasis capabilities of ovarian cancer cells were observed by wound healing assay and trans-well chamber assay. Results: The CPTAC database showed that the ERRα expression levels were higher in the late-stage and high-grade ovarian cancer tissues compared with those in early-stage and low-grade tissues. Ovarian cancer cells with higher expression level of ERRα had stronger invasion and metastasis capabilities in vitro. After up-regulating the ERRα expression level, the invasion and metastasis capabilities of ovarian cancer cells were enhanced, while down-regulation weakened. Moreover, there was a positive correlation between the percentages of wound closure and cellular ERRα mRNA expression level (r=0.921, PConclusions: Our results suggest that ERRα may play a positive role in the progression of ovarian cancer, and may serve as a promising predictive biomarker.