Col1A1 as a new decoder of clinical features and immune microenvironment in ovarian cancer

Backgrounds: Collagen type I alpha 1 chain (COL1A1) is a key protein encoding fibrillar collagen, playing a crucial role in the tumor microenvironment (TME) due to its complex functions and close association with tumor invasiveness. This has made COL1A1 a focal point in cancer biology research. However, studies investigating the relationship between COL1A1 expression levels and clinical characteristics of ovarian cancer (OC) remain limited.

Methods: This study integrated resources from publicly available online databases and immunohistochemistry (IHC) techniques to analyze and validate COL1A1 expression in OC tissues, and evaluated its potential association with clinical features in OC patients. The prognostic value of COL1A1 was assessed using Kaplan-Meier (KM) survival curve analysis. The TIMER and TISIDB databases to explore the potential relationship between COL1A1 expression and immune microenvironment in OC tissues. The LinkedOmics and INPUT2 databases were used to analyze differential gene expression in OC, This was followed by enrichment analysis using the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) and Gene Ontology (GO) annotations to identify and predict potential signaling pathways associated with COL1A1.

Results: Our study demonstrated that COL1A1 expression was significantly elevated in OC tissues compared to normal ovarian tissues. This elevated expression was closely associated with tumor metastasis, poor prognosis, and advanced pathological stages in OC patients. Moreover, COL1A1 expression showed a significant correlation with immune cell infiltration and the expression of immune-related genes within the TME.Further analyses revealed that COL1A1 and its co-expressed genes were primarily enriched in key signaling pathways involved in OC invasion, metastasis, and angiogenesis, indicating its potential role in driving OC progression.

Conclusions: Our study found that upregulation of COL1A1 expression is significantly associated with lymph node metastasis of OC and can affect the immune microenvironment. Based on this, COL1A1 could serve as a promising biomarker for OC prognosis and provide a new perspective for the development of potential immunotherapies for patients with OC.