Increased Local Testosterone Levels Alter Human Fallopian Tube mRNA Profile and Signaling

SIMPLE SUMMARY: Increased testosterone has been associated with increased risk of ovarian cancer. High Grade Serous Ovarian Carcinoma (HGSOC) mostly originates from the fallopian tube epithelium (FTE), however, the stepwise events that occur during its tumorigenic transformation are unknown. Early lesion models of fallopian tube cancer stimulate the ovary to produce more androgen, supporting the hypothesis that high levels of testosterone may contribute to HGSOC early development. Nevertheless, the role of androgens in ovarian cancer has not been investigated. This study addresses the role of androgen in the early development of ovarian cancer from primary human FTE. Our results show that increased testosterone alters mRNA profile of hFTE, increasing WNT4 and LGR6 expression as well as increasing the migratory ability of fallopian tube epithelial cells. ABSTRACT: Fallopian tube epithelium (FTE) plays a critical role in reproduction and can be the site where High Grade Serous Ovarian Carcinoma (HGSOC) originates. Tumorigenic oviductal cells, which are the murine equivalent of human fallopian tube secretory epithelial cells (FTSEC), enhance testosterone secretion by the ovary when co-cultured with the ovary, suggesting that testosterone is part of the signaling axis between the ovary and FTSEC. Furthermore, testosterone promotes proliferation of oviductal cells. Oral contraceptives, tubal ligation, and salpingectomy, which are all protective against developing ovarian cancer, also decrease circulating levels of androgen. In the current study, we investigated the effect of increased testosterone on FTE and found that testosterone upregulates wingless-type MMTV integration family, member 4 (WNT4) and induces migration and invasion of immortalized human fallopian tube cells. We profiled primary human fallopian tissues grown in the microfluidic system SOLO-microfluidic platform –(MFP) by RNA sequencing and found that p53 and its downstream target genes, such as paired box gene 2 (PAX2), cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor 1A (CDK1A or p21), and cluster of differentiation 82 (CD82 or KAI1) were downregulated in response to testosterone treatment. A microfluidic platform, the PREDICT-Multi Organ System (PREDICT-MOS) was engineered to support insert technology that allowed for the study of cancer cell migration and invasion through Matrigel. Using this system, we found that testosterone enhanced FTE migration and invasion, which was reversed by the androgen receptor (AR) antagonist, bicalutamide. Testosterone also enhanced FTSEC adhesion to the ovarian stroma using murine ovaries. Overall, these results indicate that primary human fallopian tube tissue and immortalized FTSEC respond to testosterone to shift expression of genes that regulate invasion, while leveraging a new strategy to study migration in the presence of dynamic fluid flow.