Upregulation of Endothelin-1/Endothelin A Receptor Expression Correlates with Heparanase Expression in Ovarian Carcinoma

Background: heparanase and endothelin-1/endothelin a receptor (et-1/et_ar) expressions increase in cancer. this condition enhances tumor progression and correlates with poor survival. limited data are documented regarding the role of heparanase and et-1/et_ar in epithelial ovarian cancer (eoc). we sought to characterize the correlation between heparanase and et-1/et_ar in eoc.methods: thirty patients with benign and malignant ovarian neoplasms were recruited in this study. neoplasm subtypes were diagnosed by pathologists. rna extraction was done in fresh frozen neoplasms while immunohistochemical (ihc) staining was done on etar, heparanase, and proliferation (ki-67 antigen) in paraffin sections. reverse transcriptase pcrwas done to quantify the expression of preproet-1 (ppet-1), et_ar, and heparanase. et_ar and heparanase histoscores were done based on ihc staining. the independent samples t test, anova, and correlations were used for statistical analysis. results: heparanase and et_ar histoscores, ppet-1 and et_ar mrna levels, and ki-67 were significantly higher in the group with eoc than in the benign or borderline group, regardless of the histopathological types. the heparanase histoscore correlated with the et_ar histoscore (r=0.484, p=0.007) and the et_ar mrna level (r=0.551, p=0.003). the level of ppet-1 mrna correlated with both et_ar mrna level and et_ar histoscore (r=0.603, p=0.001 and r=0.455, p=028, respectively). the ovarian neoplasms with high ppet-1 mrna levels also tended to have high heparanase mrna levels; however, the correlation was weak (r=0.354, p=0.07). ki-67 correlated with the heparanase and et_ar histoscores (r=0.381, p=0.038 and r=0.477, p=0.008, respectively). conclusion: heparanase and et_ar were upregulated in eoc, and the correlation between heparanase and et_ar expressions listed in the current study.