ST6Gal1, Cox-2 and HB-EGF mRNA Expression in Breast Cancer Samples from Kashan, Iran

Background: st6gal1, cox-2 and hb-egf genes are involved in different tumorsand their enhanced expressions often correlate with poor prognosis. in this study weassay the expressions of these genes by reverse transcriptase-pcr in 54 breast cancersamples.methods: tissue samples were either formalin-fixed for histopathologicalexamination or frozen for reverse transcriptase-pcr. image program was used for thedensitometry of the image of the gels and the expression of different genes wasnormalized with beta actin expression. the student's t-test and correlation matrix wereused for data analyses.results: we observed significantly higher expressions of st6gal1 (p= 0.040), cox-2 (p= 0.001) and hb-egf (p= 0.009) in the tumor region compared to the marginsamples. a significant correlation was found between hb-egf and cox-2 expression(p= 0.001). there was a positive correlation between total score, tumor size, histologygrade and nuclear grade but there was a reverse correlation between age and tumor size,histology grade and total score.conclusion: expressions of st6gal1, cox-2 and hb-egf in breast tumor samplesin this and a number of other studies emphasize their role as important markers in breastcancer. the use of medications to inhibit either their individual expressions or the possibleinhibition of all three genes may improve patient survival and prevent metastasis.