Transcriptional up-regulation of BMP-4 and BMPR-II genes in the peripheral blood of breast cancer patients: A pilot study.

BACKGROUND: Bone morphogenetic proteins (BMPs) belong to the transforming growth factor beta (TGF-ß) super family, which are primarily known for their inherent role in osteogenesis and ontogenesis. Accumulating evidence suggests the regulatory role of BMP-4 in cellular proliferation, apoptosis, differentiation and thus a possible oncogenic role. OBJECTIVE: Variable cellular expression and in vitro functional assays are indicative of the involvement of BMP related signaling in Breast cancer (BC). The differential expression of BMP-4 in the peripheral blood of BC patients may therefore be considered as a potential biomarker. Therefore, this study aimed to evaluate transcriptional expression of BMP-4 and its cognate receptor BMPR-II in the peripheral blood from the BC patients in relation to the healthy individuals. METHODS: The expression pattern of BMP-4 and BMPR-II was analyzed in the blood of breast cancer patients (n = 22) and healthy controls (n = 22) through Semi Quantitative Reverse transcription Polymerase chain reaction. RESULTS: An up-regulated expression of BMP-4 and BMPR-II was observed in the peripheral blood of breast cancer patients especially in the advanced-stage of the disease. Moreover, BMP-4 and BMPR-II expressions were found to be correlated. CONCLUSION: The current preliminary results based on the transcriptional analysis suggest the prospective use of BMP4 as a biomarker, however further validation is required.

Significant correlation of TLR4 expression with the clinicopathological features of invasive ductal carcinoma of the breast.

Toll-like receptor 4 belongs to the family of pattern recognition receptors and is therefore an important part of innate immunity. Since the last decade, Toll-like receptors (TLRs) have gained much interest in cancer research due to their role in tumor progression. However, there is scarcity of data evaluating TLR4 expression in different cell populations of tumor in relation to clinicopathological parameters of invasive ductal carcinoma of the breast. Therefore, we investigated TLR4 expression in 50 primary invasive ductal carcinoma and 17 lymph node sections through immunohistochemistry. Significant association of TLR4 expression with local metastasis and absence of necrosis was observed. The incidence of lymph node metastasis was higher in patients with high TLR4 expression in the tumor cells. We also observed an interesting inverse relationship of TLR4 with necrosis. In endothelial and lymphocytic population constituting breast tumors, a significant association of TLR4 expression was seen with the tumor grade. Therefore, we conclude that TLR4 expression is of biological interest both as a prognostic marker as well as a possible therapeutic target.