Glycosyltransferases as marker genes for the quantitative polymerase chain reaction-based detection of circulating tumour cells from blood samples of patients with breast cancer undergoing adjuvant therapy

Kölbl,Alexandra C.; Hiller,Roman A.; Ilmer,Mathias; Liesche,Friederike; Heublein,Sabine; Schröder,Lennard; Hutter,Stefan; Friese,Klaus; Jeschke,Udo; Andergassen,Ulrich

doi:10.3892/mmr.2015.3732

August-2015 Volume 12 Issue 2

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August-2015 Volume 12 Issue 2

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Article

Glycosyltransferases as marker genes for the quantitative polymerase chain reaction-based detection of circulating tumour cells from blood samples of patients with breast cancer undergoing adjuvant therapy

Authors:
- Alexandra C. Kölbl
- Roman A. Hiller
- Mathias Ilmer
- Friederike Liesche
- Sabine Heublein
- Lennard Schröder
- Stefan Hutter
- Klaus Friese
- Udo Jeschke
- Ulrich Andergassen
View Affiliations / Copyright

Affiliations: Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Ludwig‑Maximilians‑University of Munich, Munich D‑80337, Germany, Translational Molecular Pathology, University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX 77054, USA
Pages: 2933-2938
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Published online on: May 5, 2015

https://doi.org/10.3892/mmr.2015.3732
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Abstract

Altered glycosylation is a predominant feature of tumour cells; it serves for cell adhesion and detachment, respectively, and facilitates the immune escape of these cells. Therefore changes in the expression of glycosyltransferase genes could help to identify circulating tumour cells (CTCs) in the blood samples of cancer patients using a quantitative polymerase chain reaction (PCR) approach. Blood samples of healthy donors were inoculated with certain numbers of established breast cancer cell line cells, thus creating a model system. These samples were analysed by quantitative PCR for the expression of six different glycosyltransferase genes. The three genes with the best results in the model system were consecutively applied to samples from adjuvant breast cancer patients and of healthy donors. FUT3 and GALNT6 showed the highest increase in relative expression, while GALNT6 and ST3GAL3 were the first to reach statistically significant different ∆CT‑values comparing the sample with and without addition of tumour cells. These three genes were applied to patient samples, but did not show any significant results that may suggest the presence of CTCs in the blood. Although the relative expression of some of the glycosyltransferase genes exhibited reasonable results in the model system, their application to breast cancer patient samples will have to be further improved, e.g. by co‑analysis of patient blood samples by gold-standard methods.

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