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Expression of BMI-1 and Mel-18 in breast tissue--a diagnostic marker in patients with breast cancer.

ABSTRACT: Polycomb Group (PcG) proteins are epigenetic silencers involved in maintaining cellular identity, and their deregulation can result in cancer. Expression of Mel-18 and Bmi-1 has been studied in tumor tissue, but not in adjacent non-cancerous breast epithelium. Our study compares the expression of the two genes in normal breast epithelium of cancer patients and relates it to the level of expression in the corresponding tumors as well as in breast epithelium of healthy women.A total of 79 tumors, of which 71 malignant tumors of the breast, 6 fibroadenomas, and 2 DCIS were studied and compared to the reduction mammoplastic specimens of 11 healthy women. In addition there was available adjacent cancer free tissue for 23 of the malignant tumors. The tissue samples were stored in RNAlater, RNA was isolated to create expression microarray profile. These two genes were then studied more closely first on mRNA transcription level by microarrays (Agilent 44 K) and quantitative RT-PCR (TaqMan) and then on protein expression level using immunohistochemistry.Bmi-1 mRNA is significantly up-regulated in adjacent normal breast tissue in breast cancer patients compared to normal breast tissue from noncancerous patients. Conversely, mRNA transcription level of Mel-18 is lower in normal breast from patients operated for breast cancer compared to breast tissue from mammoplasty. When protein expression of these two genes was evaluated, we observed that most of the epithelial cells were positive for Bmi-1 in both groups of tissue samples, although the expression intensity was stronger in normal tissue from cancer patients compared to mammoplasty tissue samples. Protein expression of Mel-18 showed inversely stronger intensity in tissue samples from mammoplasty compared to normal breast tissue from patients operated for breast cancer.Bmi-1 mRNA level is consistently increased and Mel-18 mRNA level is consistently decreased in adjacent normal breast tissue of cancer patients as compared to normal breast tissue in women having had reduction mammoplasties. Bmi-1/Mel-18 ratio can be potentially used as a tool for stratifying women at risk of developing malignancy.

SUBMITTER: Riis ML

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3013088 | biostudies-literature | 2010 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Expression of BMI-1 and Mel-18 in breast tissue--a diagnostic marker in patients with breast cancer.

Riis Margit L H ML Lüders Torben T Nesbakken Anne-Jorunn AJ Vollan Hilde S HS Kristensen Vessela V Bukholm Ida R K IR

BMC cancer 20101216

<h4>Background</h4>Polycomb Group (PcG) proteins are epigenetic silencers involved in maintaining cellular identity, and their deregulation can result in cancer. Expression of Mel-18 and Bmi-1 has been studied in tumor tissue, but not in adjacent non-cancerous breast epithelium. Our study compares the expression of the two genes in normal breast epithelium of cancer patients and relates it to the level of expression in the corresponding tumors as well as in breast epithelium of healthy women.<h4 ...[more]

PMID: 21162745

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Project description:Bmi-1 and Mel-18 are close structural homologues that belong to the polycomb group (PcG) of transcriptional regulators of homeotic gene expression in development. They are believed to stably maintain repression of gene expression by altering the state of chromatin at specific promoters. A number of clinical and experimental observations have also implicated Bmi-1 in tumorigenesis and stem cell maintenance. Bmi-1 overexpression or amplification has been observed in a number of human malignancies, particularly in B-cell lymphomas, medulloblastomas and breast cancer. We report here that shRNA-mediated knock-down of either Bmi-1 or Mel-18 in human medulloblastoma DAOY cells results in the inhibition of proliferation, loss of clonogenic survival and anchorage-independent growth, and suppression of xenograft tumor formation in nude mice. Furthermore, overexpression of both Bmi-1 and Mel-18 significantly increased clonogenic survival of Rat1 fibroblasts. In contrast, stable downregulation of Bmi-1 or Mel-18 alone did not affect the growth of SK-OV-3 or U2OS cancer cell lines or normal human WI38 fibroblasts. Gene expression analysis of shRNA-expressing DAOY cells has demonstrated a significant overlap in the Bmi-1- and Mel-18-regulated genes and revealed novel gene targets under their control. Taken together, these results suggest that Bmi-1 and Mel-18 might have overlapping functions in human tumorigenesis. Experiment Overall Design: DAOY cells were transduced with the indicated lentiviral shRNA and stable cell lines were generated by selection in puromycin (1 Âµg/ml). 2 x 105 cells of each stable cell line were plated onto 60 mm dishes in triplicates and harvested 4 days later. Triplicate total RNA samples from shRNA-expressing and mock-transduced DAOY cells were isolated using affinity resin (Qiagen RNeasy Mini Kit, Qiagen AG). RNA Integrity and purity were assessed with the RNA 6000 Nano LabChip system on Bioanalyzer 2100 (Agilent Technologies). Gene array analysis was conducted at the Genomics Factory at Novartis PHARMA AG, Basel, Switzerland using Gene Chip Human Genome 133 2.0 Plus Expression Array (Affymetrix Inc.).

Dataset Information

Expression of BMI-1 and Mel-18 in breast tissue--a diagnostic marker in patients with breast cancer.

Publications

Expression of BMI-1 and Mel-18 in breast tissue--a diagnostic marker in patients with breast cancer.

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