Rose D P
Division of Nutrition & Endocrinology, American Health Foundation, Valhalla, NY 10595.
Cancer Detect Prev. 1992;16(1):43-51.
Several reports have indicated that the breast fluid obtained by nipple aspiration provides valuable biological material for inclusion in studies of breast cancer biochemical epidemiology. Breast fluids contain a variety of hormones and growth factors, often at concentrations considerably higher than those in the corresponding serum. Aspirates from benign breast disease patients have very high levels of bioactive lactogenic hormones and, to a lesser extent, immunoassayable prolactin, compared with healthy controls. A growth hormone-like protein, recognized in a radioimmunoassay but not in a growth hormone-specific immunoradiometric assay, and lacking activity in the Nb2 cell bioassay, is usually present in fluids from Finnish (low breast cancer risk) but not American (high breast cancer risk) women. Epidermal growth factor and transforming growth factor-alpha are present in breast fluids, with preliminary indications that these functionally related polypeptides occur at relatively high concentrations in benign breast disease.
多项报告表明，通过乳头抽吸获得的乳腺液为乳腺癌生化流行病学研究提供了有价值的生物材料。乳腺液含有多种激素和生长因子，其浓度通常远高于相应血清中的浓度。与健康对照相比，良性乳腺疾病患者的抽吸液中生物活性催乳激素水平非常高，免疫可测催乳素水平则相对较低。一种在放射免疫分析中可识别但在生长激素特异性免疫放射分析中未被识别、且在Nb2细胞生物分析中缺乏活性的生长激素样蛋白，通常存在于芬兰女性（乳腺癌风险低）的乳腺液中，而美国女性（乳腺癌风险高）的乳腺液中则不存在。乳腺液中存在表皮生长因子和转化生长因子-α，初步迹象表明，这些功能相关的多肽在良性乳腺疾病中浓度相对较高。
