Fucosyltransferase 8 expression in breast cancer patients: A high throughput tissue microarray analysis
Liling Yue1,2*, Cuicui Han2*, Zubin Li4, Xin Li4, Deshui Liu2, Shulin Liu1 and Haitao Yu3
1College of Pharmacy, Harbin Medical University, Harbin, 2Research Institute of Medicine and Pharmacy, Qiqihar Medical University, Qiqihar, 3Department of Biology Genetics, Qiqihar Medical University, Qiqihar and 4Breast Surgery, the Third Affiliated Hospital of Qiqihaer Medical University, Qiqihar, China
*These authors contributed equally to this work
Offprint requests to: Haitao Yu, Department of Biology Genetics, Qiqihar Medical University, Heilongjiang 161006, China. e-mail: yuhtyuhtyuht@126.com
Summary. The aim of this study was to compare the expression of fucosyltransferase 8 (FUT8) in breast cancer tissue and to investigate the relationship between this marker with tumor progression and its applicability to differential diagnosis. An immunohistochemical study was performed for FUT8 using the tissue microarray technique. In addition, the mRNA and protein levels of FUT8 in the tissue were also tested by real-time PCR and Western blot. There was a significant difference in cytoplasmic expression of FUT8 between breast cancer tissue and matched normal tissue (p<0.001). The percent of FUT8 staining in breast cancer tissues ranging from negative, weak positive, positive and strong positive were 2.7%, 40.2%, 54% and 3.2%, respectively. High FUT8 protein expression correlated with lymphatic metastasis (p=0.008) and with stage status (p=0.039). We detected that reduced FUT8 expression correlated with disease-free survival (p=0.02) and overall survival (p=0.04) of breast cancer patients. Expression of FUT8 can stratify breast cancer tissue and may be considered a prognostic marker for breast cancer patients. Histol Histopathol 31, 547-555 (2016)
Key words: FUT8; Prognosis, Breast cancer, Tissue microarray
DOI: 10.14670/HH-11-693