Molecular Signature of Pregnancy Associated Breast Cancer (PABC). Homo sapiens

Malignant epithelia and tumor-associated stroma of PABC and Non-PABC were isolated by laser capture microdissection and gene expression profiled. Additionally, normal breast epithelia and stroma adjacent to the two tumor types were profiled. Lastly, subsets of previously identified E- and P-regulated genes were defined in all tissues. Overall design: Breast cancers have been obtained from women whose tumors arose while they were pregnant or within 1 year of delivery and from age-matched controls who had never been pregnant. Malignant epithelial cells were separated by laser capture microdissection (LCM) of frozen sections. RNA was isolated and analyzed by expression profiling using Affymetrix U133 2plus Human Gene Chips

本研究通过激光捕获显微切割（Laser Capture Microdissection, LCM）分离妊娠相关乳腺癌（Pregnancy-Associated Breast Cancer, PABC）与非妊娠相关乳腺癌的恶性上皮细胞及肿瘤相关间质，并对其开展基因表达谱分析。此外，本研究还对这两种肿瘤旁的正常乳腺上皮与间质组织进行了表达谱检测。最后，在所有受试组织中明确了此前已鉴定的雌激素（E）与孕激素（P）调控基因子集。实验整体设计：本研究的乳腺癌样本来源于两类女性：一类为妊娠期或分娩后1年内罹患乳腺癌的患者，另一类为年龄匹配且从未妊娠的健康对照个体。研究人员通过对冰冻切片实施激光捕获显微切割（LCM）分离恶性上皮细胞，提取RNA后采用Affymetrix U133 2plus人类基因芯片进行表达谱分析。