Expression of CXCR5 and its natural ligand CXCL13 in breast cancer (P6278)

Abstract

Abstract Despite recent advancements in understanding of breast cancer (BrCa) molecular features and their impact on clinical behavior, BrCa systemic therapy decision-making is still guided by a constellation of clinico-pathological features, which are derived from histo-pathological analysis of primary BrCa tissues. Chemokines and their corresponding receptors play a crucial role in metastasis and organ specific homing of cancer cells in different cancers including BrCa. CXCL13 is a homeostatic chemokine acts through its cognate receptor, CXCR5. Here, we have provided the evidence that CXCR5 and CXCL13 are significantly elevated in both BrCa cell lines (MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231) and clinical samples. Flow cytometric analysis of BrCa cell lines (MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231) show significantly higher expression of CXCR5 in comparison to normal epithelial cells (MCF-10A). This finding was further confirmed at mRNA expression level by real-time PCR analysis. To determine the clinical significance of CXCR5 expressed by BrCa cell lines, breast cancer tissue microarray was stained for CXCR5 and CXCL13. Aperio scan scope scanning system was used to numerically analyze immuno-histochemical staining of CXCR5 and CXCL13. Our results show significantly higher expression of CXCR5 and CXCL13 (p < 0.001) in cancerous tissues compared to normal breast tissues. These data demonstrate both biological and clinical significance of CXCR5 and CXCL13 expression that may contribute to BrCa metastasis.