Leptin expression impact on breast tumor tissue

Abstract

Objective: To evaluate the transcriptional expression of the LEP gene that encodes leptin in an attempt to elucidate the increased plasma expression mechanism described in literature. Methods: Twenty‑six samples of mammary tissue were used, in which 13 are tumoral and 13 are non‑tumoral samples from the contralateral breast during cancer. Gene expression analyses were performed by real‑time polymerase chain reaction. Results: The analysis showed an 8.67 higher expression in non‑tumoral tissue, therefore it did not demonstrate a correspondence with literature data. The generated data were further analyzed for hormone receptor, tumor type and size, and age of patients (before and after menopause), and the latter demonstrated a trend to higher leptin expression in the tumoral tissue. Conclusion: A larger sample and correlation data, like the presence or absence of obesity, is needed for better conclusions, but these initial data suggest that there may be a strong post‑transcriptional regulation in non‑tumoral tissue.