Previously, we identified a multigene signature related with survival of patients with high-grade serous ovarian cancer (OC).^{1 2} Among differentially expressed genes was Integrin beta-like 1 (ITGBL1). Our functional studies revealed that ITGBL1 overexpression in ovarian cancer cells resulted in increased invasiveness,³ migration rate, and chemoresistance, while decreased adhesiveness⁴ and no change in proliferation rate.⁵ Later it appeared, that 4 mRNA variants of ITGBL1 may exist. The aim of our this study was to evaluate the presence of these variants in several wild-type OC cell lines, including OVPA8 established by our group.⁶ Next, we analyzed cells with ITGBL1 construct (OAW42-ITGBL1 and SKOV3-ITGBL1) and with an empty PLNCX2 vector.

Variant-1 (containing all exons) was prevalent in these cell lines which expressed ITGBL1 (ES2, OVPA8, SKOV3-ITGBL1, and OAW42-ITGBL1). Variant-2 was very low or absent in all cell lines. Variant-3 was present in significant amounts only in OAW42-ITGBL1 and ES2 cells, while variant-4 exclusively in ES2. ES2 cell line was the only expressing all 4 variants.

In summary: variant-1 is prevalent and variant-3 is second detectable, both in wild-type OC cells with natural ITGBL1 expression and in OAW42 and SKOV3 cells with ITGBL1 construct. These results confirm the validity of our experimental model and our previous conclusions concerning the influence of ITGBL1 on OC cells phenotype.

References

1. Lisowska, et al. (2014), DOI:10.3389/fonc.2014.00006

2. Lisowska, et al. (2016), DOI:10.1007/s00432-016-2147-y

3. Cortez, et al. (2018), DOI:10.1093/annonc/mdy268.036

4. Cortez, et al. (2016), DOI:10.1097/01.IGC.0000503327.50238.5c

5. Cortez, et al. (2017), DOI:10.1097/01.IGC.0000527296.86225.87

6. Tudrej, et al. (2018), DOI:10.3390/ijms19072080