Heart and Neural Crest Derivatives Expressed Transcript 2 (HAND2) is Reduced in Women with Breast Cancer. A Case-Control Study

Author Info

Ernesto de Paula Guedes neto José Luiz Pedrini Luiza Azevedo Gross Quiti dos Anjos Lopes Ricardo F. Savaris

Corresponding Author

Ricardo F. Savaris
Postgraduate Program in Health Science: Gynecology and Obstetrics, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil

A B S T R A C T

Background: The search for new markers for breast cancer (BC) has been sought in order to better understand this type of cancer. The Heart and Neural Crest Derivatives Expressed Transcript 2 (HAND2) has been related to endometrial cancer but there are scant data related to BC. The aim of this study is to compare the immunohistochemical expression of HßAND2 in normal breast tissue vs. BC and to correlate with the estrogen receptor (ERα). Patients and Methods: In this case-control study, 19 formalin–fixed, paraffin-embedded tissues were obtained from pathological archives. Benign (n=9; control) and cancer (n=10) breast tissue were analyzed with immunohistochemistry for HAND2 (Ab60037), at dilution 1:50 at pH 9 and ERα (SP1). ImageJ software with "color deconvolution" was used for analysis of the expression of these proteins. The sample size was calculated (power=95%, α error= 1%) to identify an increase from mean 15 DAB units (control) to 40 DAB units in cancer. Results: HAND2 expression (mean ± SD) was 15.5 ± 6.1 (cancer) versus 44.8 ± 21.1 (control) (P=0.002, Student t-test). Its expression was mainly present in the cytosol of the cells. No correlation was observed between ERα and HAND2 (Pearson r = -0.28 (95%CI=-0.6 to 0.22; P=0.2). Conclusions: The protein expression of HAND2, using Ab60037 antibody, is reduced in breast cancer, compared with normal breast tissue. The expression of HAND2 is not correlated with ERα expression.

Article Info

Article Type

Case Study

Publication history

Received: Mon 07, Oct 2019
Accepted: Mon 28, Oct 2019
Published: Thu 31, Oct 2019

Copyright

© 2023 Ricardo F. Savaris. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Hosting by Science Repository.
DOI: 10.31487/j.COR.2019.5.12