Expression of methyltransferase 3 in breast cancer and clinical significance

Abstract

Objective To study the expression level of methyltransferase 3 (METTL3) in the breast cancer, analyze the correlation between METTL3 and clinicopathological characteristics of breast cancer, and explore possible mechanisms of the involvement of METTL3 in the occurrence and development of breast cancer. Methods 54 cases of breast carcinoma and para-carcinoma tissues were collected. Western blotting was used to detect the protein expression of METTL3 in breast carcinoma and adjacent tissues. Real-time fluorescent quantitative polymerase chain reaction (FQ-PCR) method was operated to detect the expression of METTL3 mRNA and the correlation between METTL3 and clinicopathological characteristics of breast cancer. Results The expression of METTL3 in breast cancer was significantly higher than in the adjacent tissues (P=0.001). The expression of METTL3 mRNA was not related to age, the size of tumor, status of estrogen receptor (ER), and progesterone receptor (PR) (χ2=1.856, P=0.173; χ2=0.351, P=0.554; χ2=0.037, P=0.847; χ2=2.598, P=0.107), but to lymph node metastasis, human epidermal growth factor receptor-2 (Her-2) and proliferation cell nuclear antigen (Ki-67) (χ2=4.913, P=0.027; χ2=7.517, P=0.006; χ2=10.165, P=0.001), Western blotting showed that the expression of METTL3 in breast cancer (4.691±0.373) was higher than in the normal tissue (2.238±0.362) (P=0.016). Conclusion The expression of METTL3 in breast cancer is higher than in normal tissues, and is correlated with lymph node metastasis, depth of invasion and TNM staging, suggesting their roles in the breast cancer. Key words: Methyltransferase 3; Breast cancer; Clinicopathological characteristics