Expression of NUCB2/NESF-1 in Breast Cancer Cells

Recently, the expression of NUCB2/NESF-1 has been linked to tumor development. We report NUCB2/NESF-1 expression and its relation to clinicopathological parameters in breast cancer cells. Immunohistochemical reactions were conducted on 446 cases of invasive ductal carcinoma (IDC) and 36 cases of mastopathy. The expression of NUCB2/NESF-1 was also examined at the mRNA and protein levels in breast cancer cell lines. A statistically significant higher level of NUCB2/NESF-1 in IDC cells was noted compared to that in mastopathy samples. The level of NUCB2 expression in the cytoplasm of IDC cells decreased with the increasing degree of tumor malignancy (G). Higher NUCB2 expression was found in tumors with estrogen receptor (ER)-positive and progesterone receptor (PR)-positive phenotypes compared to that in estrogen-receptor-negative and progesterone-receptor-negative cases. Moreover, a higher expression was shown in ER(+) and PR(+) MCF-7 and T47D cell lines compared to that in triple-negative MDA-MB-468 and normal human breast epithelial cells. The analysis of the five-year survival rate indicated that a positive NUCB2/NESF-1 expression in tumor cells was also associated with longer patient survival. The study results suggest that NUCB2/NESF1 may play an important role in malignant transformation and may be a positive prognostic factor in IDC.