Defects in the BRCA1 gene have been linked to an abnormality in a mechanism that contributes to the stability of sex chromosomes in women. In mammals, male cells contain an X and a Y chromosome, while female cells contain two X chromosomes. Normally, a process called X inactivation occurs in early female embryos; it leads to silencing of one of the two X chromosomes in derivative embryonic and adult somatic cells. The authors had previously shown that loss of the inactive X chromosome (Xi) occurs in BRCA1 mutation-carrying breast cancers. Given the similarities between BRCA1-associated cancer and sporadic BLC, Drs. Andrea Richardson, Zhigang Wang, Dirk Iglehart, David M. Livingston, and Shridar Ganesan, and colleagues from the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Brigham and Women's Hospital, examined whether sporadic BLC display abnormalities in the management of the Xi chromosome.
The researchers found that, like BRCA1-associated cancers, most sporadic BLC have consistently lost the Xi and displayed a higher than normal number of apparently active X chromosomes These tumors also showed increased expression of a small, but specific, subset of X chromosomal genes. Interestingly, since all sporadic BLC analyzed displayed normal BRCA1 genes and gene expression, it was hypothesized that BLC have acquired defects in genes other than BRCA1 that contribute to some of the same cellular pathways as those that are defective in BRCA1-associated cancers. One wonders whether one or more of these pathways support(s) the maintenance of a normal Xi. "These results provide new insight into possible pathogenic mechanisms underlying both sporadic and BRCA1-associated basal-like breast cancer," explain the authors. Ideally, a better understanding of how two active X chromosomes are associated with cancer development and progression could lead to new insights into rational treatment strategies for these subtypes of breast cancer.
The researchers include Andrea L. Richardson, Zhigang C. Wang, and Alexander Miron of Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston, MA; Arcangela De Nicolo of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School in Boston, MA and the University of Padua in Padua, Italy; Xin Lu of the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston, MA; Myles Brown, Xiaodong Liao, and David M. Livingston of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School in Boston, MA; Shridar Ganesan of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School in Boston, MA and UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson School of Medicine in New Brunswick, NJ; J. Dirk Iglehart of Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, MA. This work was supported by a generous gift in support of cancer research from Deborah and Robert First. It was also supported by the Dana-Farber/Harvard SPORE in Breast Cancer, by other grants from the National Cancer Institute, and by the Breast Cancer Research Foundation.
Richardson et al.: "X chromosomal abnormalities in basal-like, human breast cancer." Publishing in Cancer Cell 9, 121–132, February 2006. DOI 10.1016/j.ccr.2006.01.013 www.cancercell.org
Journal
Cancer Cell