Expression of chromogranin A in human mammary tissues / 南方医科大学学报

ABSTRACT

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To explore the pathogenesis and significance of neuroendocrine breast carcinoma by detecting chromogranin A (CgA) in human mammary tissues.</p><p><b>METHOD</b>Eighty-nine cases of human mammary tissues were collected to detect CgA expression using immunohistochemistry.</p><p><b>RESULT</b>No CgA expression was detected in normal or hyperplastic tissues, but its expression was found in mammary carcinoma tissues at the rate of 16.7%. A significant difference in CgA expression was found between cancer tissues and non-cancer tissues, but not between the cancer tissues with different pathological grades.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>The pathogenesis of mammary neuroendocrine carcinoma may involve the micro-environmental factors that affect the differentiation of stem cells to give rise to immature cells, cell differentiation in other lineages or transdifferentiation. CgA may serve as an immunological parameter for this type of breast cancer in routine screening test.</p>