Measurements of Cell Size and Expression of Proliferation Markers in Mammary Epithelial Cells of Juvenile Macromastic Patients
Date Issued
2007
Date
2007
Author(s)
Tsai, Chin-Yin
DOI
zh-TW
Abstract
Introduction
The ideal breast size of adult women is 250 to 300 cm3. Patients with macromastia not only suffer from physical discomforts but also psychosocial adjustment disorders and seek for surgical intervention. Macromastia is divided into two groups, juvenile and gravid hypertrophy, according to the onset of excessive breast development. The cause of macromastia is not well understood and may be related to the mistakes in gene expression during puberty or pregnancy. The literatures about macromastia are mostly about operation techniques and physical and/or psychological evaluations. There are a lot of researches focusing on the molecular mechanism of breast cancer and lactation, but seldom on macromastia. The size of an organ is determined by the size of the cells and the number of the cells, which depends on cell division and cell death. PI3K/Akt and Jak2/STAT5 signal transduction pathways has been though to be related to the growth of mammary epithelial cell. This study intended to investigate the difference between breast tissues from juvenile macromastia patients and non-tumor invaded breast tissue taken from breast cancer patients, by analyzing mammary epithelial cell size and proliferation marker, Ki-67. Akt-1/2/3, phospho-Akt-1/2/3, and STAT5a levels in the mammary epithelial cells were also evaluated by immunohistochemistry stains.
Materials and Methods
Patients who received reduction mammaplasty for juvenile macromastia in NTUH from January 2003 to December 2005 are enrolled as macromastia group. The control group includes the patients who received breast operation for breast cancer in NTUH in the same time period, with breast sizes not larger than C cup. The exclusion criteria are age over 29 or less than 18, positive pregnancy history, irregular menstrual cycle, body mass index over 27, hormone exposure within 3 months, and abnormal hormone level. Sections (5 μm) from formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded blocks were cut for each case, followed by hematoxylin & eosin stain and immunohistochemistry stains (antibodies include Ki-67, Akt-1/2/3, phospho-Akt-1/2/3, and STAT5a). The H&E sections were used for measurement of mammary epithelial cell size. Five-hundred nucleus of mammary epithelial cell were counted on the Ki-67 immunohistochemistry stain sections and the positive rate was used to evaluate cell proliferation. The other immunohistochemistry stain section were photographed and evaluated with computer program Image-pro Plus 5.0 to calculate the positive area of the mammary epithelial cells. Nonparametric Wilcoxan rank sum test was used for comparison of data among the two groups.
Results
There were 8 patients in the macromastia group and 5 patients in the control group. The result didn’t show significant difference between the two groups. There is no difference between the two groups in mammary epithelial cell size measurement and Akt-1/2/3 immunohistochemistry stain. The levels of Ki-67, phospho-Akt-1/2/3, and STAT5a of juvenile macromastic patients are higher than those of the patients of the control group, and the results are statistically significant.
Conclusions
The study showed no difference between the juvenile macromastic breast and non-tumor part of cancer breast in mammary epithelial cells. But the proliferation marker, Ki-67, is higher in the macromastia group, which means that the proliferation of the mammary epithelial cells of the macromastia breast is higher. The phospho-Akt-1/2/3 and STAT5a levels were higher in the macromastia group, which implies that the cause of juvenile macromastia may be related to the activity of PI3K/ Akt or Jak2/STAT5 pathways.
Subjects
青春期巨乳症
乳腺上皮細胞
細胞尺寸
細胞增生分子標記
免疫組織化學染色
Ki-67
Akt-1/2/3
STAT5a
Juvenile macromastia
mammary epithelial cell
cell size
proliferation marker
immunohistochemistry stain
SDGs
Type
text
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