Expression of glucose-regulated protein 78 (GRP78) and its regulator microrna-181 during the development and progression of ovarian cancer.

5579 Background: Ovarian cancer (OVCA) is a lethal malignancy of women with a distinct pattern of metastasis through peritoneal dissemination. Sustained exposure of the ovaries to oxidative stress due to inflammatory processes including ovulatory genotoxicity, makes the ovarian microenvironment conducive to malignant cell proliferation. GRP78 is a stress-inducible protein which resides in the endoplasmic reticulum of the cell. Thus GRP78 may be a marker of ovarian tumor associated stress and could represent a therapeutic target for OVCA. The goal of this study was to examine if GRP78 expression increases in association with OVCA development and determine the molecular mechanism of its increase in ovarian tumors. Methods: All tissues were collected from patients who underwent surgery and processed for immunohistochemistry (IHC), proteomic study (2D-WB) and miRNA expression. Expression of GRP78 was examined in paraffin sections of normal ovaries (n = 20), benign (serous cystadenoma, n = 15 and cystadenofibr...