Heparanase is involved in proliferation and invasion of ovarian cancer cells.

Heparanase(HPSE), an endo-β -D-glucuronidase, is found overexpressed in Ovarian cancer (OC). The purpose of our work was to investigate primitively the possible role of HPSE in the development of OC. In this study, RNA interference (RNAi) with a HPSE small hairpin RNAs(HPSE-shRNA) and plasmid with HPSE were used to identify the effects of HPSE on the regulation of malignant behaviors of OC. OV-90 and SKOV3 were selected as a cell model in vitro and in vivo. The results showed that down-regulation of HPSE can significantly inhibit the proliferative and invasive ability of SKOV3 cells, and up-regulation of HPSE in OV-90 cells showed the opposite effects. Compared with the parental OC cells, HPSE silencing cells exhibited attenuated capacities in developing tumor in nude mice, while the growth tumors xenografts derived from these cells were dramatically regressed. In conclusion, our results suggest that HPSE contributes to the proliferation and metastasis of OC and HPSE might be a potent molecular target for OC treatment.