TFRC promotes epithelial ovarian cancer cell proliferation and metastasis via up-regulation of AXIN2 expression

Epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) is the most common cause of gynecological cancer death. Recent studies have reported that iron overload could accelerate cancer progression. TFRC is an important participant in intracellular iron transport, and we noticed that it was abnormally overexpressed in EOC; however, its specific role in EOC remained unclear. Therefore, our study aimed to reveal the clinical significance and biological function of TFRC in human EOC. First, we detected dramatically increased TFRC expression in EOC tissues, which was associated with a worse prognosis for patients. Subsequently, we verified that TFRC knockdown significantly inhibited the proliferation and metastasis of EOC cells (SKOV3 and A278O) in vitro and in vivo. More significantly, we demonstrated that TFRC-mediated proliferation and metastasis of EOC cells resulted from its positive regulation of AXIN2 expression. In conclusion, our findings suggest that TFRC accelerates the progression of EOC by promoting cancer cell proliferation and metastasis via upregulation of AXIN2 expression, which highlights its potential as a novel therapeutic target for human EOC.