Figure 9. Schematic representation of association of LEFTY expression with cell proliferation and susceptibility to apoptosis in OCCCa.

Overexpression of LEFTY by TGF-β1/Smad signaling and/or other factors either activates the p53/p21^waf1 pathway or induces p27^kip1 expression, resulting in decreased cell proliferation. Its overexpression is also responsible for susceptibility to apoptosis due to the inhibition of the Smad2/XIAP axis and bcl2 expression, as well as the activation of the p53/bax pathway.