Effect of BMP-7 and BMP-2 in invasion and metastasis of ovarian cancer

Ovarian cancer is clinically important, because they are diagnosed late and have metastasis when they are diagnosed. Epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) plays role in the pathogenesis of ovarian cancer. Bone morphogenetic proteins (BMP), transcription factors and integrins are effective in the EMT process. Our hypothesis in this study is that there is an inverse correlation between BMP 2 and BMP 7 immunoreactivity in ovarian cancers. The immunoreactivities of BMP-2, BMP-7, ZEB2, ITG α5 and ITG β1 were determined by indirect immunoperoxidase in high grade serous ovarian cancer with and without lymph node metastasis and both indirect immunoperoxidase and immunofluorescence method was used for determing the immunreactivity of these molecules in SKOV-3 cell line. Data was evaluated by H-score analysis and the difference between the groups was statistically determined. The immunoreactivity of BMP-2 and ZEB2 was found significantly stronger in both ovary and lymph node samples with lymph node metastasis (p <0.000, p <0.000). BMP-7 immunereactivity was observed stronger in ovarian tissues without lymph node metastasis. The immunoreactivity of ITG α5 immunoreactivity was stronger in ovarian tissues without lymph node metastasis (p <0.001). The tumor cells showed stronger ITG β1 immunoreactivity in lymph node samples with lymph node metastasis and ovary samples without lymph node metastasis (p <0.001). In vivo and in vitro results of our study showing strong positive immunreativity of BMP-2 and weak immunoreactivity of BMP-7 in tumor cells confirmed our hypothesis and showed BMP-2 and BMP-7 has inverse correlation. Changes in the expression of BMPs affect progression in ovarian cancer. Increase in the level of BMP-7 expression may play a role in protective mechanisms from ovarian cancers.