ABSTRACT
Objective:To analyze the relationship between the AXIN2 gene promoter methylation status in breast cancer tissues with the breast cancer-related risk factors, clinicopathological characteristics and the mRNA expression of AXIN2 gene.Methods:The breast cancer tissues and adjacent tissues of 84 breast cancer patients were taken to detect the AXIN2 gene promoter methylation status and the AXIN2 mRNA expression. We used different concentrations of methyltransferase inhibitors 5-Azacytidine (5 -Aza) to treat human breast cancer ZR-75-1 cells, and collected the breast cancer-related risk factors and clinicopathological characteristics.Results:The positive rate of methylation of AXIN2 gene promoter in breast cancer tissues (40.5%) was significantly higher than that of adjacent tissues (19.0%) ( χ2=10.401, P=0.001) . The positive rate of AXIN2 methylation was related to the age at first delivery ( χ2=5.467, P=0.019) and a history of induced abortion ( χ2=8.372, P=0.006) ; the positive rate of AXIN2 methylation was related to lymph node metastasis ( χ2=5.338, P=0.021) , ER expression status ( χ2=9.141, P=0.002) and PR expression status ( χ2=6.918, P=0.009) . In addition, the relative expression of AXIN2 gene mRNA in breast cancer tissues (0.22 ± 0.03) was significantly lower than that in adjacent tissues (0.46 ± 0.06) ( t=3.527, P<0.001) . The relative mRNA expression of the methylation-positive breast cancer tissues (0.13 ± 0.02) was significantly lower than that of the methylation-negative breast cancer tissues (0.29 ± 0.04) ( t=3.616, P<0.001) . After ZR-75-1 cells treated with 5-Aza, the relative expression of AXIN2 gene mRNA increased significantly ( t=3.824, P<0.001) . Conclusion:DNA methylation in the promoter region of the AXIN2 gene is related to the pathogenesis of breast cancer, and has certain clinical application value.
