Glajcar Anna, Szpor Joanna, Pacek Agnieszka, Tyrak Katarzyna Ewa, Chan Florence, Streb Joanna, Hodorowicz-Zaniewska Diana, Okoń Krzysztof
Department of Pathomorphology, Jagiellonian University Medical College, ul. Grzegórzecka 16, 31-531, Kraków, Poland.
2nd Department of Internal Medicine, Jagiellonian University Medical College, Kraków, Poland.
Virchows Arch. 2017 May;470(5):505-515. doi: 10.1007/s00428-017-2103-5. Epub 2017 Mar 18.
Mast cells (MCs) are a part of the innate immune system. The MC functions toward cancer are partially based on the release of chymase and tryptase. However, the MC effect on breast cancer is controversial. The aim of our study was to investigate the presence of MCs in breast cancer tumors of different molecular subtypes and their relationships with other pathological prognostic factors. Tryptase- and chymase-positive mast cell densities were evaluated by immunohistochemistry in 108 primary invasive breast cancer tissue samples. Positive cells were counted within the tumor bed and at the invasive margin. For all analyzed MC subpopulations, we observed statistically significant differences between individual molecular subtypes of breast cancer. The significantly higher numbers of intratumoral chymase- and tryptase-positive mast cells were observed in luminal A and luminal B tumors compared to triple-negative and HER2+ non-luminal lesions. A denser MC infiltration was associated with lower tumor grade, higher ER and PR expression, lower proliferation rate as well as the lack of HER2 overexpression. The results obtained in our study indicate a possible association of chymase- and tryptase-positive MCs with more favorable cancer immunophenotype and with beneficial prognostic indicators in breast cancer.
肥大细胞（MCs）是固有免疫系统的一部分。MCs对癌症的作用部分基于糜蛋白酶和组织蛋白酶的释放。然而，MCs对乳腺癌的影响存在争议。我们研究的目的是调查不同分子亚型乳腺癌肿瘤中MCs的存在情况及其与其他病理预后因素的关系。通过免疫组织化学对108例原发性浸润性乳腺癌组织样本中的组织蛋白酶和糜蛋白酶阳性肥大细胞密度进行评估。在肿瘤床和浸润边缘对阳性细胞进行计数。对于所有分析的MC亚群，我们观察到乳腺癌各个分子亚型之间存在统计学显著差异。与三阴性和HER2+非管腔病变相比，在管腔A型和管腔B型肿瘤中观察到肿瘤内糜蛋白酶和组织蛋白酶阳性肥大细胞数量显著更多。更密集的MC浸润与更低的肿瘤分级、更高的雌激素受体（ER）和孕激素受体（PR）表达、更低的增殖率以及HER2无过表达相关。我们研究中获得的结果表明，糜蛋白酶和组织蛋白酶阳性MCs可能与更有利的癌症免疫表型以及乳腺癌中有益的预后指标相关。
