The Exocrine Differentiation and Proliferation Factor (EXDPF) gene could promote exocrine while inhibit endocrine functions. Although it is well known that ovary is an endocrine organ, the functions of EXDPF in
ovarian cancer development is still unknown. This study demonstrated that EXDPF gene is significantly higher expressed in ovarian
tumors compared to normal ovarian tissue controls. EXDPF
DNA amplification was exhibited in lots of human
tumors including 7.19% of ovarian
tumors. Also, high expression of EXDPF positively correlated with poor overall survival (OS) of
ovarian cancer patients. EXDPF expression could be universally detected in most
epithelial ovarian cancer cells (SKOV3, IGROV1, MACS, HO8910PM, ES2, COV362 and A2780) tested in this study. Knock-down of EXDPF by
siRNA delivered by plasmid or lentivirus largely inhibited
ovarian cancer cells, IGROV1 and SKOV3 proliferation, migration and
tumorigenesis in vitro and/or in vivo. Knock-down of EXDPF sensitized SKOV3 cells to the treatment of the front-line drug,
paclitaxel. Mechanism study showed that EXDPF enhanced DNA replication pathway to promote
ovarian cancer tumorigenesis. In conclusion, this study demonstrated that EXDPF could be a potential therapeutic target as a pro-oncogene of
ovarian cancer.