It has been reported that nuclear factor of activated T cells (NFATC1) was up-regulated in cancers mediating malignant behaviors. However, the role of NFATC1 in ovarian cancer has not been elucidated. In the present study, we undertook to explore the clinicopathological significance of NFATC1 expression and the mechanism by which NFATC1 works in ovarian cancer. Expression status of NFATC1 was examined using immunohistochemistry. Both knockdown and re-expression of NFATC1 on ovarian cancer cells were employed to observe the effect overgrowth. It was found that NFATC1 was significantly overexpressed in ovarian cancer tissues in comparison with paired normal control tissues and that overexpression of NFATC1 was significantly associated with metastasis and poor prognosis on clinical tissue level. In in vitro ovarian cancer cell lines, we found that NFATC1 can promote proliferation up-regulating c-myc through activation of ERK1/2/p38/MAPK signal pathway. Together, the results we obtained demonstrated that NFATC1 played oncogenic role in ovarian cancer. Mechanistically, NFATC1 promoted growth of ovarian cancer cells up-regulating c-myc through activation of ERK1/2/p38/MAPK signal pathway, suggesting that NFATC1 might be used as a therapeutic target for ovarian cancer.
Keywords: C-myc; ERK1/2; NFATC1; Ovarian cancer; Proliferation.