PROTEIN EXPRESSION PROFILES IN HUMAN BREAST DUCTAL CARCINOMA AND HISTOLOGICALLY NORMAL TISSUE

Reference two-dimensional (2-D) gels are presented for human breast du ctal carcinoma and histologically normal tissue. Whole biopsy fragment s were analyzed, including epithelial and nonepithelial components. Th irty-five spots have been assigned by gel matching to the human liver SWISS-2DPAGE reference map and/or to the human primary keratinocyte IP G map from the Danish Center for Human Genome. N-terminal microsequenc ing was applied to confirm randomly chosen matching assignments and to identify six new spots. Protein expression profiles in ductal carcino ma and in normal breast tissue appeared to be similar, except for a pa ttern consisting of 32 spots, which were highly expressed in all carci noma specimens, and less intense and occasionally undetectable in norm al tissue. This difference was statistically significant. Assignment h as been obtained for several spots, namely GRP94, GRP78, GRP75, mitoch ondrial HSP60, calreticulin, protein disulfide isomerase, peptidyl-pro lyl cis-trans isomerase, collagen-binding protein 2, fructose bisphosp hate aldolase, glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase, thioredoxin, cytochrome c oxidase VA subunit, tubulin beta isoform and macrophage m igration inhibitory factor (MIF). The cancer-and tissue-specificity of the described pattern was assessed by matching to the Swiss-2DPAGE hu man liver, hepatoma, lymphoma, erythroleukemia reference maps. The pat tern of 32 spots was found to be indicative of epithelial neoplasia.