Wang Xi, Yarid Nicole, McMahon Loralee, Yang Qi, Hicks David G
Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY.
Appl Immunohistochem Mol Morphol. 2014 Aug;22(7):498-504. doi: 10.1097/PAI.0b013e3182a20933.
The androgen receptor (AR) is strongly expressed in the majority of breast carcinomas, but its role in breast hormonal carcinogenesis is not clear. We believe a better knowledge of the biology of normal/benign breast tissue will be the key to understanding this process. Using standard immunohistochemical staining on consecutive sections and dual immunohistochemical labeling, we studied the expression pattern of AR and estrogen receptor (ER) in normal/benign breast luminal epithelial cells. We found that most of the AR-positive cells are also ER positive, about 10% of the cells are AR-positive only, whereas ER-positive only cells are uncommon, a distribution pattern of hormone receptor expression similar to what was revealed in invasive breast carcinomas. Whereas the expression of AR downstream proteins, such as prostate-specific antigen and gross cystic disease fluid protein, was either negative or unrelated to the AR status. We conclude that AR and ER expression status in invasive breast carcinomas reflects that of their progenitor cells in terminal duct lobular units. Our study did not reveal the expression of AR downstream proteins in normal/benign luminal epithelial cells at the regular immunohistochemistry level.
雄激素受体（AR）在大多数乳腺癌中强烈表达，但其在乳腺激素致癌过程中的作用尚不清楚。我们认为，更好地了解正常/良性乳腺组织的生物学特性将是理解这一过程的关键。通过对连续切片进行标准免疫组织化学染色和双重免疫组织化学标记，我们研究了AR和雌激素受体（ER）在正常/良性乳腺腔上皮细胞中的表达模式。我们发现，大多数AR阳性细胞也是ER阳性，约10%的细胞仅为AR阳性，而仅ER阳性的细胞并不常见，这种激素受体表达的分布模式与浸润性乳腺癌中所显示的相似。而AR下游蛋白，如前列腺特异性抗原和乳腺大囊性病液蛋白的表达要么为阴性，要么与AR状态无关。我们得出结论，浸润性乳腺癌中AR和ER的表达状态反映了其在终末导管小叶单位中祖细胞的表达状态。我们的研究在常规免疫组织化学水平上未发现正常/良性腔上皮细胞中AR下游蛋白的表达。
