COL1A1 and ovarian carcinoma: To explore the ECM alterations during tumorigenesis, we used the Oncomine database (https://www.oncomine.org) to analyze published transcriptional data and found that the transcriptional levels of several ECM components, including collagen 1a1 (Col1a1), Col1a2, fibronectin 1 (FN1) and lysyl oxidase (LOX), were robustly increased in ovarian cancer compared to normal ovaries (Fig. 1, Additional file 1: Figure S1A).