The prognostic value of autotaxin activity and gene expression, matrix metalloproteinase-9 and p53 antibodies in breast cancer patients

Abstract

The aim of this study was to analyze changes in autotoxin (ATX) (both enzyme activity and gene expression), metalloproteinase-9(MMP-9) and p53 antibodies (Abs) serum levels in breast cancer patients and to correlate their results with various clinical, pathological features of breast cancer. Sixty female breast cancer patients ( 42 with lymph node (LN) metastasis and 18 without LN metastasis) were included in this study and subjected to determination of ATX (both activity by colorimetric method and gene expression by RT-PCR) and both p53 Abs and MMP-9 by ELISA technique. Our results showed that there were statistically significant differences between breast cancer patients with and without LN metastasis in all the studied parameters except for p53 Abs. ATX (both activity and gene expression) and the serum levels of both MMP-9 and p53 Abs, were significantly different between different stages and grades of breast cancer patients with increasing activity and levels from stage I to IV and from grade I to III. Only ATX (both activity and expression) was significantly different between patients with tumor size less than or more than 5. There was a highly significant correlation between ATX activity and gene expression. In Conclusions: the present study suggested that ATX activity, MMP-9 and p53Abs could serve as useful and convenient prognostic and detection markers of metastasizing breast cancer. Also, ATX activity may be used as an index for increased ATX gene expression.

key words: autotoxin, cancer breast metastasis, metalloproteinase-9,
p53 antibodies