Abstract: Objective To investigate the expression of WAVEs in ovarian cancer（OC）and clinical pathological characteristics. Methods The expressions of WAVEs were detected by immunohistochemistry technique in 60 cases of OC,30 ovarian benign tumors,25 ovarian borderline tumors and 21 normal ovarian tissues.The expression of WAVEs was subjected to statistical analysis combined with patients’ clinical pathological data. The protein and mRNA levels of WAVEs were detected by real time PCR (RT-PCR) and western blotting respectively. Results 1)The expression of WAVE1 in OC was significantly higher than ovarian normal tissues, ovarian benign tumors and ovarian borderline tumors, P<0.01. 2)The expression of WAVE1 in OC was closely related with clinical stage、pathological differentiation and Ca-125 level (P<0.05) .Whereas there was no relevance to age,tumor size or volume of ascites（P>0.05）. 3)The expressions of WAVE1 mRNA and protein in OC were significantly higher than ovarian normal tumor,ovarian benign tumor and ovarian borderline tumor,(P<0.01;Both WAVE2 and WAVE3 have very low expression of mRNA and protein level in all groups. Conclusion Overexpression of WAVE1 may play an essential role in the development of OC and may be bound up with the invasion and metastasis of OC. That may be a potential new therapeutic target for OC.

Key words: ovarian cancer, WASP family Verproline-homologous proteins, invasion , metastasis