Hedgehog signaling pathway regulates ovarian cancer invasion and migration via adhesion molecule CD24

Hedgehog (Hh) signalling plays an important role in cancer; however, its mechanism in ovarian cancer migration and invasion remains unclear. In the present study, we aimed to clarify the effect of the Hh signalling pathway on ovarian cancer migration and invasion through the regulation of CD24 expression, both in vitro and in vivo. Patients with ovarian cancer (n = 97) were recruited for this study. Evaluation of the explored the role parameters of patients indicated that CD24 expression was negatively associated with age, histological type and lymph node metastasis (p>0.05), but was positively associated with the clinical stage and pathological grading (p<0.05). The in vitro results indicated that the activator (sonic hedgehog, Shh) and inhibitor (GANT61) of Hh signalling significantly enhanced and reduced CD24 expression, respectively, at both the gene and protein levels (p<0.05). The addition of Shh significantly enhanced cellular migration and invasion of SKOV3 cells in vitro (p<0.05) Down regulation of CD24 using siRNA inhibited the tumour-promoting effects of Shh, and the in vivo results confirmed that GANT61 significantly inhibited CD24 expression and reduced tumour growth (p<0.01). In conclusion, the expression of CD24 can be regulated by Hh signalling, and downregulation of CD24 could play an important role in inhibiting ovarian cancer progression.