Abstract:To explore the role of HER-3 in ovarian cancer and Herceptin resistant ovarian cancer, and the effect of HER-3 on the proliferation abilities in vitro and tumorigenicity abilities in vivo of Herceptin-resistant ovarian cancer cell SKOV3/H. Methods Herceptin concentration was gradually increased to construct resistant cell lines (C0 = 5 mg/L, increased 5 to 8 times, each time increased by 50%). qRT-PCR was used to detect the expression of HER-3 in 15 pairs of ovarian cancer tissues which were non-resistant or resistant to Herceptin, and the expression of HER-3 in SKOV3 and SKOV3/H cells. MTT experiment was used to detect the proliferation of SKOV3/H after infected with sh-HER-3 or vector. KOV3/H cells infected with sh-HER-3 or vector were subcutaneously injected into nude mice to build the ovarian cancer xenografts. Tumor formation was observed in vivo situation. Results Successfully constructed the Herceptin-resistant ovarian cancer cell line SKOV3/H, the Td of SKOV3/H was 1.4 to 1.9 times of SKOV3. The expression levels of HER-3 was significantly higher in Herceptin resistant ovarian cancer tissues (p < 0.05), and HER-3 expression levels were also significantly higher in SKOV3/H cells ( p< 0.05). After transfected with sh-HER-3, theproliferation and tumorigenicity abilities of SKOV3/H were significantly lower than vector group (p < 0.05). The tumorigenicity ability of SKOV3/H in mice was significantly reduced (p < 0.05). Conclusions HER-3 is involved in the Herceptin resistant of ovarian cancer and affects the proliferation and in vivo tumorigenicity of SKOV3/H.