MSc. and Carlos Lopes, Department of Pathology and Molecular Immunogenetics, Institute of Biomedical Sciences Abel Salazar. Jorge Viterbo Ferreira Street, n° 288, 4050-313, Porto, Portugal.
Anticancer Res. 2014 Mar;34(3):1427-34.
BACKGROUND/AIM: The Cancer Stem Cell (CSC) model proposes that cancer is driven by a cellular component which possesses stem cell (SC) properties, cancer stem cells (CSCs), a distinct cell-type which is tumorigenic and capable of invasion and metastasis. Enzymatic activity of aldehyde dehydrogenase-1 (ALDH1), a de-toxifying enzyme that oxidizes intracellular aldehydes, has been used as a marker of normal and malignant breast stem cells (BSCs). CD44-transmembrane protein has already been shown to possess the ability to identify breast epithelial cells with stem properties.
In order to compare two of the currently most reliable BSCs markers, ALDH1 and CD44, and to correlate their expression within different breast lesions, 190 samples from breast cancer specimens were analyzed by tissue microarrays.
ALDH1 expression was observed in 85.43% and CD44 in 90.3% of all samples. No overexpression was observed for ALDH1 between invasive tumors, ductal carcinomas in situ and non-malignant lesions of breast, although ALDH1 had a significant negative correlation with estrogen-receptor (ER) and progesterone-receptor (PR) status (p=0.002 and p=0.001, respectively) and a positive correlation with CD44 (p<0.001). Moreover, combined overexpression of ALDH1 and CD44 was observed in ductal in situ tumors (p<0.001).
The combined overexpression of these markers in ductal carcinomas in situ is in agreement with the CSC model in breast cancer.
背景/目的：癌症干细胞（CSC）模型提出，癌症是由具有干细胞（SC）特性的细胞成分驱动的，即癌症干细胞（CSC），这是一种具有致瘤性、侵袭和转移能力的独特细胞类型。醛脱氢酶-1（ALDH1）的酶活性，一种氧化细胞内醛的解毒酶，已被用作正常和恶性乳腺干细胞（BSC）的标志物。已经表明跨膜蛋白 CD44 具有识别具有干细胞特性的乳腺上皮细胞的能力。
为了比较目前最可靠的两种 BSCs 标志物 ALDH1 和 CD44，并将其在不同乳腺病变中的表达进行相关性分析，对 190 个乳腺癌标本的组织微阵列进行了分析。
在所有样本中，ALDH1 的表达在 85.43%和 CD44 的表达在 90.3%。在浸润性肿瘤、导管原位癌和乳腺非恶性病变之间，未观察到 ALDH1 的过度表达，尽管 ALDH1 与雌激素受体（ER）和孕激素受体（PR）状态呈显著负相关（p=0.002 和 p=0.001），与 CD44 呈正相关（p<0.001）。此外，在导管原位瘤中观察到 ALDH1 和 CD44 的联合过表达（p<0.001）。
这些标志物在导管原位癌中的联合过表达与乳腺癌中的 CSC 模型一致。
