Study On Related Protein Expression Of Hedgehog Signaling Pathway In Breast Cancer

Objective:To analyze the related protein expression of Hedgehog signaling pathway and its significance between breast cancer stem cells and differentiated cells; To investigate related protein expression of Hedgehog signaling pathway and its significance between breast cancer primary tumor and lymph node metastasis tumor.Methods:30fresh specimens of breast invasive ductal carcinoma were made into single cell suspensions by mechanical separation, then breast cancer stem cells (CD44+CD24-/low cells) and differentiated cells (CD24+and CD44-CD24-cells) were separated from them by immunomagnetic sorting. Immunocytochemical technique was employed to detect the expression of Shh、Ptch、Smo, Gli-1in two groups.57cases of invasive ductal carcinoma with axillary lymph node metastasis were selected, PV6000immunohistochemistry was applied to assay protein expression of the Hedgehog signaling pathway between the primary tumor and lymph node metastases tumor.Results:(1) Under optical microscope, there was no significant difference of morphology between breast cancer stem cells and differentiated cells. The proportion of CD44+CD24-/low in breast cancer was an average of2.85%.(2) The positive expression rates of Shh、Ptch、Smo and Gli-1in Breast cancer stem cells were83.3%(25/30),73.3%(22/30),76.7%(23/30),76.7%(23/30); The positive expression rates of Shh, Ptch, Smo, and Gli-1in differentiated cells were53.3%(16/30),40%(12/30),40%(12/30),23.3%(7/30).(3) The expression of Shh, Ptch, Smo and Gli-1in breast cancer stem cells were significantly higher than its expression in differentiated cells, the differences were statistically significant (P<0.05or P<0.01).(4) The positive rates of Shh, Ptch, Smo and Gli-1in breast cancer primary tumor were91.2%(52/57),86%(49/57),91.2%(52/57),71.9%(41/57); the positive rates in metastatic foci were82.5%(47/52),91.2%(52/57),75.4%(43/57),22.8%(13/57)(5) The expression of Shh and Ptch in primary tumor and metastasis foci showed no statistical significance (P>0.05); The expression of Smo, Gli-1have differences in primary breast cancer and matched lymph node metastases (P<0.05或P<0.01)Conclusion:(1) The proportion of breast cancer stem cells in breast cancer is about2.85%; there is no significant difference of morphology between breast cancer stem cells and differentiated cells under optical microscope.(2) The related protein expression of Hedgehog signaling pathway in breast cancer stem cells is significantly higher than the differentiated cells, suggesting that Hedgehog signaling pathway proteins may play an important role in the proliferation and differentiation of breast cancer stem cells, can provide a new direction for clinical targeted therapy.(3) Hedgehog signaling pathways related proteins of Shh, Ptch in breast primary tumor and lymph node metastasis tumor are significantly in high expression, performance for the consistency of expression; And the espression of Smo, Gli-1protein in primary tumor significantly higher than the lymph node metastases tumor. Especially Gli-1the high protein expression in breast cancer may play an important role in the metastasis progress of the human invasive breast cancer.