Receptor tyrosine kinase-like orphan receptor 2 is an
enzyme-linked receptor which specifically modulates WNT5A signaling and plays an important role in
tumorigenesis, invasion, and
metastasis; however, the precise role of
receptor tyrosine kinase-like orphan receptor 2 in
cancer is controversial. The purpose of this study was to investigate the expression and role of
receptor tyrosine kinase-like orphan receptor 2 in ovarian
carcinoma and clarify the
biological functions and interactions of
receptor tyrosine kinase-like orphan receptor 2 with non-canonical Wnt pathways in
ovarian cancer. The result of the human ovary tissue microarray revealed that the
receptor tyrosine kinase-like orphan receptor 2-positive rate increased in malignant
epithelial ovarian cancers and was extremely higher in the metastatic
tumor tissues, which was also higher than that in the malignant ovarian
tumor tissues. In addition, high expression of
receptor tyrosine kinase-like orphan receptor 2 was closely related with
ovarian cancer grading. The expression of
receptor tyrosine kinase-like orphan receptor 2 protein was higher in SKOV3 and A2780 cells than OVCAR3 and 3AO cells. Knockdown of
receptor tyrosine kinase-like orphan receptor 2 inhibited
ovarian cancer cell proliferation, migration, invasion, and induced morphologic as well as digestive state alterations in stably transfected SKOV3 cells. Detailed study further revealed that silencing of
receptor tyrosine kinase-like orphan receptor 2 reversed the epithelial-mesenchymal transition and inhibited non-canonical Wnt signaling. Our findings suggest that
receptor tyrosine kinase-like orphan receptor 2 may be an important regulator of epithelial-mesenchymal transition, primarily regulated the non-canonical Wnt signaling pathway in
ovarian cancer cells, and may display a promising therapeutic target for
ovarian cancer.