Evaluating Gelsolin Gene Expression Among Iranian Breast Cancer Patients

Background: Breast cancer is the most common type of cancer among women, and is among the five most prevalent cancer types among Iranian women. Advanced-stage breast cancer is often correlated with distant metastases. Alterations in gene expression affect general cytoskeleton changes during differentiation and oncogenesis, and can be considered an important factor in tumor progression. Gelsolin plays a significant role in actin assembly and has been introduced as a tumor activator. The aim of this study was to evaluate the expression of Gelsolin in breast cancer as well as its correlation with patients’ clinical parameters. Methods: In this study, 70 breast cancer patients, who had been referred to Imam Khomeini Complex Cancer Institute for surgery were randomly selected. Normal and tumor tissues were prepared and stored at -80°C. Gelsolin gene expression was measured using real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Results: The results showed that Gelsolin gene expression had increased in 68.6% of the tumor samples. In addition, there was a significant association between increased levels of gene expression and tumor progression stages (P < 0.05). However, there was no significant association between increased levels of gene expression and other clinical findings, such as tumor grade, tumor size or patient age. Conclusion: The results revealed that Gelsolin gene expression had increased in the tumor samples. Gelsolin overexpression also resulted in increased lymph node involvement in breast cancer. The expression of this gene also increased significantly during advanced stages of breast cancer; however, there was no significant relation between Gelsolin expression and tumor grade or tumor size.