Study Of The Expression Of Heparanase MRNA And Its Protein In Human Breast Cancer

【Background and objectives】Breast cancer is one of the most common malignanttumors in women. It has strong ability to invade and metastasize. To achieve theirinvasion and metastasis, the cancer cells must break through a tissue barrier which isconsist of basement membrane(BM) and extracellular matrix(ECM). Recently studiesshow that heparanase(Hpa) can not only specifically degrades heparin sulfateproteoglycan(HSPG), the main constituent of the barrier, but also synergize manyfactors to directly or indirectly enhance tumor invasion and metastasis via multiplemethods. Thus recently it has become a hot research area for the mechanism andsolution of cancer metastasis. In this study, the expression of the Hpa in breast cancertissue was measured, combined with microvessel density(MVD) data; we analyze therelationships between Hpa and angiogenesis, clinical stage, histopathological grade,lymph node metastasis, and tumor size of breast cancer.【Methods】Eighty randomly selected invasive ductal carcinoma and 10 intraductalpapilloma of the breast specimens were used as experimental and control group. TheHpa mRNA and its protein expression in the tissue of breast cancer and intraductalpapilloma were detected with In situ hybridization and immunohistochemicaltechnique. Combined with microvessel density (MVD) counting, their relations withpatients'clinical and pathological characteristics were analyzed with SPSS11.5.【Results】1.Fifty-three (66.25%) of 80 expressed Hpa mRNA in breast cancer; incontrast, only 1(10%) of 10 expressed Hpa mRNA in benign breast tumor. Theexpression of Hpa mRNA in breast cancer was significantly higher than that of benignbreast tumor (P<0.05).The strong positive of Hpa mRNA expression in breast cancer was 25, MVD was41.57±9.30;the weak positive was 28, MVD was 29.35±5.51;the negative was 27,MVD was 18.67±3.96. There was significant difference in three groups(P<0.001).Relatively analysis revealed that a correla-tion between the expression ofHpa mRNA and MVD (r=0.692,P<0.001). 2.Fifty-nine (73.75%) of 80 expressed Hpa protein in breast cancer;in contrast,only 3(30%) of 10 expressed Hpa protein in benign breast tumor. The expression ofHpa protein in breast cancer was significantly higher than that of benign breast tumor(P<0.05). The strong positive of Hpa protein expression in breast cancer was 32, MVDwas 38.45±10.59;the weak positive was 27, MVD was 26.49±5.92; the negative was21, MVD was 19.98±7.13. There was significant difference in three groups (P<0.001).There was positive correlation between the expression of Hpa protein and MVD(r=0.588,P<0.001) 3.Hpa expression in the breast carcinoma tissue did not correlated withpatients'age.But it is associated with clinical stage, pathological grade,tumor size,andlymph node metastases (P<0.05). 4.There is no significant difference in detecting Hpa expression either frommRNA or protein expression level .【Conclusions】1. Hpa was overexpressed in breast cancer. 2. Hpa is associated with the angiogenic. 3. Hpa is associated with the happening and development of the breast cancer,the grade of malignant, and lymph node metastases. 4. Hpa can be used as an important marker for the invasiveness and metastasis ofthe breast carcinoma. 5.The expression pattern of Hpa mRNA and its protein is consistent in differentbreast cancer specimens.