Abstract 3934: Analysis of PKC- protein and mRNA levels in normal and malignant breast tissue

It is estimated that in 2015 breast cancer will be the second leading cause of cancer death in women. For this purpose, biochemical markers for breast cancer have been investigated, to assist in early detection and more accurate diagnoses. In breast cancer tissue, the atypical isozyme of protein kinase C zeta, PKC-, has been a topic in research; It has been shown that an overexpression of this protein may be indicative of developing carcinogenesis and contributes to proliferation through the NF kappa B pathway, which is a stress-regulated switch for cell survival. In this investigation, the expression of PKC- was analyzed in normal and malignant female human breast tissue samples by Western blot, immunoprecipitation and PCR. In the preliminary results, the malignant breast tissue samples illustrated a significant expression of PKC when compared to the expression of PKC- in normal breast tissue samples. The same tissues were also processed for total RNA isolation which was followed by cDNA synthesis and Real Time PCR. The level of PKC- mRNA was tested and no overexpression was observed in either malignant or normal breast tissue samples. While protein studies may suggest that PKC- could be considered a biomarker for breast cancer, the same cannot be said about mRNA levels. The overexpression of PKC- protein level and the normal PKC- mRNA level are indicators of possible miRNA activity that may regulate translation in malignant tissues but not the normal.