Association of Connective Tissue Fibers with Estrogen Expression in Breast Lesions among Sudanese Females

Abstract

Background Breast cancer is a major cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide Immunohistochemical typing is important to understand the biological behavior of this disease High mammographic density which mostly attributed to collagen fibers is among the strongest risk factors for developing breast cancer Our objectives are to determine the type of connective tissue fibers in different breast lesions and to evaluate the relation between connective tissue fibers and estrogen expression Methods A total of samples of breast lesions were malignant and were benign was evaluated retrospectively All specimens were diagnosed in the histopathology department of Laboratory Administration in Khartoum State Sudan The specimens were then re examined for estrogen receptor status by immunohistochemistry and connective tissue fibers by Vangieson and Masson Trichrome for collagen fibers Silver stain for reticular fibers and Verhoeff for elastic fibers methods of staining Findings For the malignant samples immunohistochemical staining for estrogen receptors revealed positive expression in and negative in specimens Benign samples showed estrogen receptors positive and estrogen receptors negative Out of the total study subjects there were estrogen receptors positive Interpretation A significant correlation between estrogen receptors positive and presence of collagenic fibers P value was noticed Furthermore Elastic fibers were significantly associated with estrogen receptors positive P value as well as Reticulin fibers P value Conclusion The significant positive association between ER expression and all three types of connective tissue fibers suggests an underlying molecular relation and that the estrogen receptors expression might be predicted using histochemical demonstration as screening step for tissue biopsy To the best of our knowledge no study investigated the association between estrogen receptors and connective tissue fibers