SPARCL1 suppresses the proliferation and migration of human ovarian cancer cells via the MEK/ERK signaling.

Ovarian cancer is the most lethal gynecological malignancy worldwide and is one of the five leading causes of cancer-associated mortality in women. There is an urgent requirement to obtain a greater understanding of the molecular mechanism underlying ovarian cancer progression in order to identify novel drug targets and biomarkers. Secreted protein acidic and rich in cysteine-like protein 1 (SPARCL1) has been suggested as a candidate tumor suppressor in various types of human cancers. However, the potential role of SPARCL1 for ovarian cancer has not yet been clearly established. In the present study, lower protein expression levels of SPARCL1 were detected in ovarian cancer tissues when compared with adjacent normal tissues. Overexpression of SPARCL1 significantly suppressed the proliferation and migration of cells from the ovarian cancer cell line SKOV-3, whereas knockdown of SPARCL1 significantly increased cell growth and migration. Furthermore, the results revealed that SPARCL1 overexpression significantly suppressed the activation of the mitogen-activated protein kinase kinase (MEK)/extracellular signal-related kinase (ERK) signaling pathway. Collectively, these results indicated that SPARCL1 may suppress the proliferation and migration of ovarian cancer cells by downregulating signaling via the MEK/ERK pathway.