Objective: To investigate the mechanism of signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3) and cancer associated fibroblasts (CAF) jointly generate chemo-resistance in epithelial-ovarian cancer and their effect on prognosis. Methods: A total of 119 patients with high-grade ovarian serous cancer who received surgery in Cancer Hospital of Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences from September 2009 to October 2017 were collected. The clinico-pathological data and follow-up data were complete. Multivariate Cox regression model was used to analyze the prognostic factors. Ovarian cancer tissue chips of patients in our hospital were prepared. EnVision two-step method immunohistochemistry was used to detect the protein expression levels of STAT3, the specific markers of CAF activation, fibroblast activating protein (FAP), and type Ⅰ collagen (COL1A1) secreted by CAF. The relationship between the expression of STAT3, FAP, COL1A1 protein and drug resistance and prognosis of ovarian cancer patients was analyzed, and the correlation between the expression of three proteins was analyzed. These results were verified through the gene expression and prognostic information of human ovarian cancer tissues collected in the GSE26712 dataset of gene expression omnibus (GEO) database. Results: (1) Multivariate Cox regression model analysis showed that chemotherapy resistance was an independent risk factor for overall survival (OS) of ovarian cancer (P<0.001). (2) The expression levels of STAT3, FAP, and COL1A1 proteins in chemotherapy resistant patients were significantly higher than those in chemotherapy sensitive patients (all P<0.05). Patients with high expression of STAT3, FAP, and COL1A1 had significantly shorter OS than those with low expression (all P<0.05). According to the human ovarian cancer GSE26712 dataset of GEO database, patients with high expression of STAT3, FAP, and COL1A1 also showed shorter OS than patients with low expression (all P<0.05), the verification results were consistent with the detection results of ovarian cancer patients in our hospital. (3) Correlation analysis showed that the protein level of STAT3 was positively correlated with FAP and COL1A1 in our hospital's ovarian cancer tissue chips (r=0.47, P<0.001; r=0.30, P=0.006), the analysis of GEO database GSE26712 dataset showed that the expression of STAT3 gene and FAP, COL1A1 gene were also significantly positively correlated (r=0.31, P<0.001; r=0.52, P<0.001). Conclusion: STAT3 and CAF could promote chemotherapy resistance of ovarian cancer and lead to poor prognosis.
目的： 探讨信号传导及转录激活蛋白3（STAT3）与肿瘤相关成纤维细胞（CAF）共同影响卵巢上皮性癌（卵巢癌）化疗耐药的机制及对患者预后的影响。 方法： 收集2009年9月—2017年10月在中国医学科学院肿瘤医院接受手术治疗且术中留取肿瘤组织标本的高级别卵巢浆液性癌患者共119例，其临床病理资料及随访资料完整，采用多因素Cox回归模型对预后影响因素进行分析。制备本院患者的卵巢癌组织芯片，采用免疫组化EnVision二步法检测组织芯片中STAT3、CAF活化的特异性标志物——成纤维细胞活化蛋白（FAP）、CAF分泌的Ⅰ型胶原蛋白（COL1A1）的表达水平，分析STAT3、FAP、COL1A1蛋白表达与卵巢癌化疗耐药及患者预后的关系，并分析3种蛋白之间表达的相关性；结合国际公共数据库——基因表达综合（GEO）数据库中GSE26712数据集收录的人卵巢癌组织的基因表达及患者预后信息，对本院卵巢癌患者的检测结果进行验证。 结果： （1）本院资料的多因素Cox回归模型分析显示，化疗耐药是影响卵巢癌患者总生存时间（OS）的独立危险因素（P<0.001）。（2）本院化疗耐药患者的卵巢癌组织中STAT3、FAP、COL1A1蛋白的表达水平均显著高于化疗敏感者（P均<0.05）。本院的卵巢癌组织芯片中STAT3、FAP、COL1A1蛋白高表达患者的OS均显著短于低表达患者（P均<0.05）；对GEO数据库中GSE26712数据集收录的卵巢癌资料的分析显示，高表达STAT3、FAP、COL1A1基因的卵巢癌患者的OS也均显著短于低表达患者（P均<0.05），其验证结果与本院卵巢癌患者的检测结果均一致。（3）相关性分析表明，本院的卵巢癌组织芯片中，STAT3蛋白与FAP、COL1A1蛋白的表达均呈显著正相关（r=0.47，P<0.001；r=0.30，P=0.006）；对GEO数据库中GSE26712数据集收录的卵巢癌资料的分析显示，STAT3基因与FAP、COL1A1基因的表达也均呈显著正相关（r=0.31，P<0.001；r=0.52，P<0.001）。 结论： STAT3与CAF共同作用，可能促进卵巢癌的化疗耐药，进而导致卵巢癌患者的预后较差。.