Institute of Pathology, University Hospital Basel, Basel, Switzerland.
Clin Breast Cancer. 2013 Aug;13(4):264-70. doi: 10.1016/j.clbc.2013.02.009.
The presence of forkhead box protein 3 (FOXP3) in breast cancer cells is a matter of debate. We systematically analyzed expression of FOXP3 in 1574 breast carcinomas.
For nuclear FOXP3 detection in epithelial breast cancer cells, tissue microarray technology was used. In addition, cultured breast cancer cell lines (ZR75-1, MCF7-WH, BT20, T47D, and SKBR3) were tested for FOXP3 expression using real-time polymerase chain reaction and flow cytometry for messenger RNA (mRNA) and protein quantification.
We could neither detect any significant levels of mRNA or protein expression of FOXP3 in human breast cancer cell lines, nor in breast cancer specimens. Weak nuclear staining for FOXP3 was detectable in 16 of 1574 breast cancer cases (1%) and was only seen in a small proportion of malignant cells. There was no difference in survival between patients with FOXP3-positive or -negative tumors.
FOXP3 does most likely not play a significant role in breast cancer biology, because it is only scarcely expressed in a very small proportion of breast cancer samples.
FOXP3 蛋白在乳腺癌细胞中的存在一直存在争议。我们系统地分析了 1574 例乳腺癌中 FOXP3 的表达。
为了检测上皮性乳腺癌细胞中的核 FOXP3，我们使用了组织微阵列技术。此外，我们还使用实时聚合酶链反应和流式细胞术检测了培养的乳腺癌细胞系（ZR75-1、MCF7-WH、BT20、T47D 和 SKBR3）中 FOXP3 的 mRNA 和蛋白表达。
我们既不能在人乳腺癌细胞系中检测到 FOXP3 的 mRNA 或蛋白表达的任何显著水平，也不能在乳腺癌标本中检测到。FOXP3 的核弱染色在 1574 例乳腺癌病例中的 16 例（1%）中可检测到，仅见于一小部分恶性细胞中。FOXP3 阳性或阴性肿瘤患者的生存无差异。
FOXP3 很可能在乳腺癌生物学中没有发挥重要作用，因为它仅在一小部分乳腺癌样本中表达甚少。
