Basigin-2 is the predominant basigin isoform that promotes tumor cell migration and invasion and correlates with poor prognosis in epithelial ovarian cancer

Background Basigin, which has four isoforms, has been demonstrated to be involved in progression of various human cancers. The aim of this study was to examine the prognostic value of basigin-2 protein expression in epithelial ovarian cancer. Furthermore, the function of basigin-2 in ovarian cancer was further investigated in cell culture models. Methods Immunohistochemistry staining was performed to investigate basigin-2 expression in a total of 146 ovarian tissue specimens. Kaplan Meier analysis and Cox proportional hazards model were applied to assess the relationship between basigin-2 and progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS). Real-time PCR, RT-PCR and western blot were used to explore basigin-2, basigin-3 and basigin-4 expression in ovarian cancer cell lines and tissues. To evaluate possible contributions of basigin-2 to MMP secretion and cell migration and invasion, the overexpression vectors pcDNA3.1-basigin-2 and basigin-2 siRNA were transfected into HO-8910 and HO-8910 PM cells respectively. Results High basigin-2 expression was associated with lymph-vascular space involvement, lymph node metastasis and poor prognosis of epithelial ovarian cancer. Multivariate analyses indicated that basigin-2 positivity was an independent prognostic factor for PFS ( P = 0.006) and OS ( P = 0.019), respectively. Overexpression of basigin-2 increased the secretion of MMP-2/9 and cancer cell migration and invasion of HO-8910 cells, whereas knockdown of basigin-2 reduced active MMP-2/9 production, migration and invasion of HO-8910 PM cells. Conclusions The expression of basigin-2 might be an independent prognostic marker and basigin-2 inhibition would be a potential strategy for epithelial ovarian cancer patients, especially in inhibiting and preventing cancer cell invasion and metastasis.