Ets-1 regulates its target genes mainly by DNA methylation in human ovarian cancer

Ovarian cancer is the second most common gynaecological cancer worldwide, and its molecular mechanism has not been completely understood. Ets-1 is a member of the Ets transcription family and can play important roles in the regulation of extracellular matrix remodelling, invasion, angiogenesis and drug resistance in several malignancies, including ovarian cancer. In the current study, we downloaded two datasets from Gene Expression Omnibus database and sought to explore the regulation mechanism of Ets-1 in ovarian cancer by computational analysis of gene expression profiles. Microarray analysis identified a total of 548 genes that were regulated by Ets-1 in ovarian cancer. Functional annotation of these genes revealed that Ets-1 may be involved in several biological processes, both physiological and pathological, such as system development, response to stimulus, vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) production, morphogenesis, cell proliferation, cell adhesion and signal transduction. Further, DNA methylation analysis of the DEGs found that 26.5% (145) of them were differentially methylated genes in ovarian cancer. Our results provide insight into the mechanism of Ets-1 regulating the transcription of its target genes in the complex and multistep process of ovarian cancer progression.