Correlation between metallothionein (MT) expression and selected prognostic factors in ductal breast cancers.

Abstract

Abstract:Our study aimed at examining significance of metallothionein (MT) expression in ductal breast cancers by determination of a relationship between expression of MT protein (MT-1/2) and selected prognostic factors, including grade of histological differentiation (G), expression of Ki-67 proliferative antigen, expression of estrogen receptors (ER) and progesterone receptors (PgR) and expression of HER-2 receptor. Material for the studies involved 54 samples of invasive ductal breast cancer, manifesting malignancy grades of G1-G3. In paraffin sections of examined tumours immunohistochemical reactions were performed using specific antibodies directed to MT, Ki-67, ER, PgR or HER-2. Intensity of MT-specific immunohistochemical reactions was measured using the semiquantitative IRS scale of Remmele. Intensity of colour reactions targeted at Ki-67, ER, PgR was evaluated scoring proportions of positive cells, while HER-2-specific reactions were evaluated in the scale of 0-3 points. The lowest level of MT expression was detected in breast cancer cases of G1 malignancy grade (G1 vs G3 p=0.020). A positive correlation between MT and Ki-67 antigen expression (r=0.32, p=0.019) was disclosed. Moreover, MT expression exhibited negative correlations with expression of ER (r=-0.35, p=0.008) and PgR (r=-0.27, p=0.046). No relationships could be detected between expression of MT and expression of HER-2 (r=0.12, p=0.37). The obtained results suggest that MT expression might be helpful in prognostic evaluation of ductal breast cancers. Abbreviations: MT -metallothionein; Ki-67 -proliferative antigen; ER -estrogen receptor; PgR -progesterone receptor; HER-2 -human epidermal growth factor receptor 2; G -grade of histological differentiation; IRS -immuno-reactive score

Adult murine cardiomyocytes exhibit regenerative activity with cell cycle reentry through STAT3 in the healing process of myocarditis

“…Therefore, the reduced expression of MT1 and MT2 might result in the increased cardiomyocyte apoptosis in STAT3cKO hearts with decreased resistance against ROS. In addition to cytoprotection, it is also reported that the expression of MTs is positively associated with cell proliferation particularly in malignancies 45–48 , possibly though the maintenance of zinc homeostasis 49 .…”

Podoplanin expression in cancer-associated fibroblasts correlates with VEGF-C expression in cancer cells of invasive ductal breast carcinoma

“…Expression of estrogen (ER) and progesterone (PR) receptors were conducted according to the earlier described procedure [27]. The sections were deparaffinized and rehydrated in Antigen Retrieval Solution (pH 6; Dako).…”

Metallothioneins and zinc in cancer diagnosis and therapy

“…Most work is focused on the immunohistochemical determination of MTs in tumors Babula et al, 2011;Eckschlager et al, 2009;Gumulec et al, 2011;Krizkova et al, 2008Krizkova et al, , 2009Krizkova et al, , 2010Krizkova et al, , 2012Sochor et al, 2012), but also on its determination in serum by various methods, such as Brdicka's reaction or enzymelinked immonosorbent assay Krizkova et al, 2010). MT can serve as a prognostic marker in central nervous system tumors of childhood and adolescence (Rickert and Paulus, 2005;Rickert, 2004), osteosarcoma (Trieb and Kotz, 2001), breast cancer (Woolston et al, 2010;Jin et al, 2004;Gomulkiewicz et al, 2010), pancreatic islet cell tumors (Tomita, 2002), and tongue squamous-cell carcinoma (Theocharis et al, 2011). MT can also serve as a serum tumor marker in prostate cancer Masarik et al, 2011), head and neck tumors , childhood solid tumors , and melanoma .…”