Ovarian cancer (OC) represents one of the most lethal gynecological malignancies. Extracellular matrix is present in both primary and metastatic tumors and exhibit significant functional heterogeneity, adaptability and resilience. These cells are crucial for cancer progression because of their complex signaling interactions with different cell types in the tumor microenvironment. The collagen type X alpha 1 chain (COL10A1) is notably overexpressed in extracellular matrix and is closely associated with the initiation and progression of the disease. However, the role of the COL10A1 gene in extracellular matrix remains unexplored. Here, we identified the differentially expressed gene COL10A1 via multiple databases, including the GEO database and the TCGA-OV dataset. We subsequently performed further bioinformatics analyses concerning COL10A1. The external datasets were ultimately analyzed, and clinical samples were collected and examined via immunohistochemistry and quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (qRT‒PCR). Our findings revealed that COL10A1 expression was markedly elevated in OC extracellular matrix and correlated with adverse clinicopathological characteristics and poorer patient prognosis. Functional enrichment analyses indicated that COL10A1 may facilitate tumorigenesis and progression by modulating several pathways associated with cellular growth, metabolism, proliferation, and survival, particularly the phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K)/protein kinase B (AKT) signaling pathway and extracellular matrix (ECM)-receptor interactions. Furthermore, we observed that COL10A1 was associated with the infiltration of various immune cells and immune checkpoints. Importantly, in clinical samples, COL10A1 expression was significantly increased in OC, which was related to unfavorable clinicopathological features and poorer patient prognosis. Our research indicates that extracellular matrix with elevated COL10A1 expression may enhance OC progression through the modulation of macrophage. Consequently, COL10A1 may serve as a novel biomarker for predicting OC prognosis and provides a promising avenue for developing therapeutic strategies targeting the tumor microenvironment.
Wang et al. (Fri,) studied this question.