ABSTRACT
Objective:To investigate the mRNA and protein expressions of steroid sulfatase (STS) in breast cancer tissues and normal breast tissues, and analyze its relationship with clinicopathologic characteristics. Methods:The mRNA and protein expressions of STS, in 40 cases of breast cancer tissues and corresponding paracancerous normal breast tissues, were examined by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction(RT-PCR)and immunohistochemistry. The correlation of STS expression level with clinicopathologic characteristics was analyzed. Results:STS protein was mainly expressed in the cytoplasm of breast carcinoma cells and epithelial cells in normal breast glands, but not in the stroma. It could be detected in the nucleus of carcinoma cells in 3 cases of breast cancer tissues, which was pathologically classified as invasive ductal carcinoma, invasive lobular carcinoma, and invasive micropapillary carcinoma. STS was not observed in interstitial tissues of breast glands. STS protein expression had positive correlation with its mRNA expressing level. The positivity of STS was 70.0% in breast cancer tissues, significantly higher than that of normal breast tissues (42.5%). The difference was significant (P =0.013). Stratified analysis showed that the positive rates of STS protein were significantly higher in premenopausal patients, the patients with lymph node metastasis, and those with advanced breast carcinoma than those in the matched normal breast tissues (P<0.05). Conclusion:Breast cancer tissues highly expressed STS protein to stimulate local estrogen production, thereby enhancing the progression and migration of breast cancer cells. In addition, as the tumor growth, locally biosynthesized estrogens may play more and more important roles.
ABSTRACT
Objective:To investigate the feasibility of detecting excision repair cross-complementing 1(ERCC1)and ERCC2 in peripheral venous blood instead of cancer tissues from esophageal squamous cell carcinoma patients. Methods:The expressions of ERCC1 and ERCC2 mRNA were detected by using RT-PCR in 39 cases of peripheral venous blood samples, esophageal squamous cell carcinoma tissues, and adjacent normal tissues. ELISA was used to determine the levels of ERCC1 and ERCC2 proteins in serum. The periphe-ral blood from 10 healthy volunteers was used as control. Results:Expression levels of ERCC1 and ERCC2 mRNA and protein were significantly higher in peripheral blood from healthy control than those in esophageal carcinoma patients (P<0.05). There was a positive correlation between the expression of ERCC1 and ERCC2 mRNA in peripheral blood and cancer tissues (P<0.01). Conclusion:The expression levels of ERCC1 and ERCC2 mRNA in peripheral blood can indirectly reflect their expression levels in human esophageal squamous cell carcinoma tissues.