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Vitamin D regulates cell viability, migration and proliferation by suppressing galectin-3 (Gal-3) gene in ovarian cancer cells

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Abstract

Vitamin D deficiency is identified as a risk factor for the occurrence and recurrence of ovarian cancer. Galectin-3 (Gal-3) participates in many physiological and pathological processes. In present study, serum vitamin D level was detected using chemiluminescence enzyme immunoassay. Gal-3 expression was examined using real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR), Western blot and immunocytochemistry analysis. SKOV3 cells viability was assessed by the water-soluble tetrazolium salt (WST-1) assay, the migration of SKOV3 cells was detected using transwell assay, and the proliferation of SKOV3 cells was measured by 3H-thymidine incorporation (3H-TdR). Our study demonstrated that vitamin D levels were lower in 40 ovarian cancer patients: vitamin D deficiency is closely related to the pathogenesis of ovarian cancer. Treatment with vitamin D reduced the migration and proliferation of ovarian cancer cells. Gal-3 was overexpressed in ovarian cancer, which could induce the viability, migration and proliferation ability of ovarian cancer cells, and these effects were abrogated by vitamin D downregulating the expression of Gal-3 gene. Therefore, our results support that vitamin D may suppress Gal-3-induced viability, migration and proliferation ability of ovarian cancer cells, which suggests that the use of vitamin D may have beneficial effects in preventing and treating ovarian cancer.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China; Contract Grant Number: 81571437. Nanjing Health Bureau Medical Science Foundation (No. YKK16203)

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Correspondence to Jingmin Zhang.

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Communicated by Kundan Sengupta.

Corresponding editor: Kundan Sengupta

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Ji, J., Cheng, X., Wang, W. et al. Vitamin D regulates cell viability, migration and proliferation by suppressing galectin-3 (Gal-3) gene in ovarian cancer cells. J Biosci 45, 69 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12038-020-00038-1

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