Association Study of BIF-1 Gene Expression with Histopathological Characteristics and Hormone Receptors in Breast Cancer

Abstract

Background Breast cancer (BC) is a heterogeneous disease that has different clinical outcomes. Bax-interacting Factor-1 (BIF-1) is a member of the endophilin B family that produces the pro-apoptotic BCL2-Associated X (BAX) protein in response to apoptotic signals. Lack of BIF-1 inhibits the intrinsic pathway of apoptosis and increases the risk of tumor genesis. The aim of the present study was to investigate the relationship between hormone receptors (ER, PR, HER2) status and different levels of BIF-1 gene expression in breast cancer patients. Methods BIF-1 gene expression was evaluated in 50 breast cancer tumors and 50 normal breast mammary tissues using SYBR Green Real Time RT-PCR technique. Multivariate and univariate analyses were used to evaluate the relationship between the prognostic significance of the BIF-1 gene using SPSS software. In this study, BIF-1 was selected as a candidate for a molecular biomarker and its expression status in breast cancer patients with hormone receptors (ER, RR, HER2) compared to patients without these hormone receptors. Results The study showed that the relative expression of BIF-1 gene in tissues of patients with hormone receptor in breast cancer compared to those without hormone receptor were not statistically significant. The expression levels of BIF-1 gene in different groups were evaluated for hormone receptor status. No significant relationship was found between BIF-1 gene expression and hormone receptors (ER, PR and HER2) (p> 0.05). Conclusion BIF-1 gene expression may be a useful prognostic marker in breast cancer.