Dueñas-Gonzalez A, Isales C M, del Mar Abad-Hernandez M, Gonzalez-Sarmiento R, Sangueza O, Rodriguez-Commes J
Department of Medicine, University of Salamanca, Spain.
Mod Pathol. 1997 Jul;10(7):645-9.
Breast cancer is characterized by its ability to metastasize rapidly. Factors that might facilitate this metastatic potential include tumor vascularity. Nitric oxide (NO), a labile compound synthesized by NO synthase (NOS), is a major regulator not only of physiologic vascular tone but also of the abnormal vascularity associated with many tumors. To test whether NOS is expressed in primary breast tumors and whether its expression is associated with the presence of metastasis, we analyzed the expression of the inducible NOS in 22 primary breast tumors, and to investigate its association to other gene products related to the metastatic ability of tumor cells, we correlated the expression of the inducible NOS with the expression of the nm23 protein (the product of the putative antimetastatic gene nm23). We found a very strong correlation between the presence of NOS and axillary lymph node metastasis and between NOS and the absence of nm23 protein. These data suggest that NO synthesis and the resulting increase in blood flow to the tumor play a role in the facilitation of tumor metastasis.
乳腺癌的特点是具有迅速转移的能力。可能促进这种转移潜能的因素包括肿瘤血管生成。一氧化氮（NO）是一种由一氧化氮合酶（NOS）合成的不稳定化合物，它不仅是生理血管张力的主要调节因子，也是与许多肿瘤相关的异常血管生成的主要调节因子。为了检测NOS是否在原发性乳腺肿瘤中表达以及其表达是否与转移的存在相关，我们分析了22例原发性乳腺肿瘤中诱导型NOS的表达，并且为了研究其与其他与肿瘤细胞转移能力相关的基因产物的关联，我们将诱导型NOS的表达与nm23蛋白（假定的抗转移基因nm23的产物）的表达进行了相关性分析。我们发现NOS的存在与腋窝淋巴结转移之间以及NOS与nm23蛋白的缺失之间存在非常强的相关性。这些数据表明，NO的合成以及由此导致的肿瘤血流量增加在促进肿瘤转移中起作用。
