Clinicopathological significance and biological role of TCF21 mRNA in breast cancer

• DOI: 10.1007/s13277-015-3476-1
• Publication Date: 2015-06-04T22:41:57Z
• Authors: Jie Wang; Xueren Gao; Mingxi Wang; Jianqiong Zhang
• Keywords: Adult; Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transition; Breast Neoplasms; Middle Aged; 3. Good health; Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic; 03 medical and health sciences; 0302 clinical medicine; Lymphatic Metastasis; Basic Helix-Loop-Helix Transcription Factors; MCF-7 Cells; Humans; Female; Neoplasm Invasiveness; RNA, Messenger; Aged; Cell Proliferation

TCF21 is known to function as a tumor suppressor and deregulated in several types of cancers; however, its role in breast cancer remains poorly understood. The aim of this study was to examine the expression of TCF21 messenger RNA (mRNA) in breast cancer and evaluate its clinical significance and biological role in tumor progression. TCF21 mRNA expression was analyzed in breast cancer cell lines and tissues by qRT-PCR. Overexpression approach was used to investigate the biological functions of TCF21 mRNA in breast cancer cell line (MDA-MB-231). A notably lower level of TCF21 mRNA expression was found in breast cancer cell lines and tissues. Furthermore, the low expression of TCF21 mRNA was associated with large tumor size and positive lymph node metastasis. Functional analysis showed that overexpression of TCF21 mRNA inhibited cell proliferation and epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) of MDA-MB-231. In conclusion, our data provided the first evidence that TCF21 mRNA is significantly downregulated in breast cancer cell lines and tissues and regulates breast cancer cell proliferation and EMT. Thus, TCF21 may act as a potential therapeutic target for breast cancer intervention.