1. ¹The Queensland Institute of Medical Research, Brisbane, Australia
2. ²Department of Pathology, University of Queensland, Australia

Correspondence: Dr J Arnold, Queensland Institute of Medical Research, C/0 RBH Post Office, Herston, QLD 4029, Australia. E-mail: jeremyA@qimr.edu.au

Received 16 November 2004; Revised 7 February 2005; Accepted 24 March 2005; Published online 17 May 2005.

Abstract

Chemokine (C-C motif) ligand-2 (CCL2) is a chemoattractant and activator of macrophages and is a key determinant of the macrophage infiltrate into tumours. We demonstrate here that CCL2 is expressed in normal human ovarian surface epithelium (HOSE) cells and is silenced in most ovarian cancer cell lines, and silenced or downregulated in the majority of primary ovarian adenocarcinomas. Analysis of the CCL2 locus at 17q11.2–q12 showed loss of heterozygosity (LOH) in 70% of primary tumours, and this was significantly more common in tumours of advanced stage or grade. However, we did not detect any mutations in the CCL2 coding sequence in 94 primary ovarian adenocarcinomas. These data support the hypothesis that CCL2 may play a role in the pathobiology of ovarian cancers, but additional studies will be required to evaluate this possibility.