RNA sequencing of human A2780 cells
Ascites plays a key role in supporting the metastatic potential of ovarian cancer cells. It was shown that cell-free ascites from ovarian cancer patients (ASC) non-selectively induce cell proliferation in multiple models of ovarian cancer and in untransformed primary human dermal fibroblasts. Furthermore, ASC induced a Warburg-type rearrangement of cellular metabolism in A2780 ovarian cancer cells characterized by increased cellular oxygen consumption and increased glycolytic flux, however, increases in glycolytic flux was dominant. ASC-induced mitochondrial uncoupling and largely reduced fatty acid oxidation. Ascites-elicited effects were uniform among ascites specimens. Through examining the ASC-elicited transcriptomic changes in A2780 ovarian cancer cells we identified the induction of the TGFbeta-ERK/MEK pathway that played key role in inducing cell proliferation and the induction of oncometabolism. ASC-induced gene expression changes were associated with poor survival in ovarian cancer patients.