Expression of insulin-like growth factor-I receptor, estrogen receptor alpha, Bcl-2 and Bax proteins in human breast cancer.
Disturbance in expression of estrogen receptors together with changing influence of growth factor receptors and apoptosis associated proteins plays a role in breast cancer development and progression. However, immunohistochemical detection and relationships among these proteins were not often considered in relation to breast cancer and a few evaluations of expression provided mismatching results and conclusions. Consequently, we examined by immunohistochemistry the expression of the insulin-like growth factor-I receptor (IGF-IR), estrogen receptor alpha (ERalpha) and apoptosis-associated proteins, Bcl-2 and Bax, in human primary breast cancer, as well as analyzing the relationships among these proteins. The positive immunostaining for IGF-IR, ERalpha, Bcl-2 and Bax was noted in 56, 63.8, 82.8 and 50% of tumors, respectively. We observed that IGF-IR negatively correlated with ERalpha in the group of all tumors and in axillary node negative cancer (p<0.03, p<0.05, respectively), but not in the subgroup of node positive cancer. Expression of ERalpha correlated positively with Bcl-2 and negatively with Bax proteins (p<0.0001, p<0.05, respectively). We did not note significant relationships between IGF-IR and Bcl-2, or IGF-IR and Bax proteins. We found that increased Bax expression was associated with positive lymph node status, pT2 stage and G3 grade of tumors. Knowledge about alterations in the IGF-IR expression and relations of the receptor to other biological factors could help in our understanding of breast cancer biology and the importance of the IGF-IR in cancer progression as well as in effective management of breast cancer.
Koda
Mariusz
M
Department of Pathology, Medical University of Bialystok, Waszyngtona 13, 15-269 Bialystok, Poland.
Przystupa
Wojciech
W
Jarzabek
Katarzyna
K
Wincewicz
Andrzej
A
Kanczuga-Koda
Luiza
L
Tomaszewski
Jakub
J
Sulkowska
Mariola
M
Wolczynski
Slawomir
S
Sulkowski
Stanislaw
S
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000096:biosynthesis*; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology*; D047628:Estrogen Receptor alpha / Q000096:biosynthesis; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D008875:Middle Aged; D019253:Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-bcl-2 / Q000096:biosynthesis; D017526:Receptor, IGF Type 1 / Q000096:biosynthesis; D051028:bcl-2-Associated X Protein
C494826:BAX protein, human; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D047628:Estrogen Receptor alpha; D019253:Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-bcl-2; D051028:bcl-2-Associated X Protein; D017526:Receptor, IGF Type 1