Abstract
The aim of this study is to correlate the prominin-1 or CD133 association with functional pathway markers of cancer stemness in Indian triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) patient samples. TNBC samples were confirmed for the absence of hormone receptors (estrogen receptor-ER/progesterone receptor) and human epidermal growth factor receptor-2 or proto-oncogene neu or erbB2 or CD340 by immunohistochemical analysis. Formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded samples of patients were used to collect the total RNA. Then, one-step reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) was used to detect the cancer stemness-related transcript levels in the different samples. The RT-PCR products were analyzed semi-quantitatively on agarose gels. The band intensities of respective samples for different transcripts were analyzed by densitometry. TNBC-confirmed samples had shown increased levels of CD133 transcript than control tissues. Further, elevated CD133 transcripts are correlated with higher transcript levels of NOTCH1/FZD7/transforming growth factor-beta receptor Type III R/patched-1 pathway mediators. This work has clearly indicated that there is a correlation between CD133 and functional pathways that control cancer stem cells in TNBC. These observations may indicate the possible association between cancer stemness and TNBC malignancy.
Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
