Response of four human ovarian carcinoma cell lines to ALL‐TRANS retinoic acid: Relationship with induction of differentiation and retinoic acid receptor expression

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Abstract
The response of 4 human ovarian carcinoma cell lines to retinoic acid was found to be related to the histological type and degree of differentiation of these tumor cells. The 2 serous cell lines NIHOVCAR3 and OVCCR1 were the most sensitive to the antiproliferative effect of RA. This inhibition was associated with morphological and biological changes that were indicative of differentiation. The undifferentiated IGROV1 cell line was not affected by RA. Since the effects of RA are thought to be mediated by nuclear retinoic acid receptors (RARs), the expression of RARs in human ovarian cancer cells was studied. RARα was detected as mRNA species of 3.1 and 2.6 kb in all 4 cell lines. RARβ was not detected in any of the cell lines, while RARγ (3 kb) was expressed in all of the ovarian cancer cells but at a very low level in the RA‐resistant IGROV1 cells.