Comparative assessment of proteins between cell lines and tissues representing carcinomas of the breast using 2-dimensional gel electrophoresis

Abstract

Incidence of breast cancer in the age group of 30 to 50 is increasing at an alarming rate globally. Moreover, existing treatments are either marginally effective or resistance developed, hence development of safe and potent pharmacological agents is immediately required. However, establishment of a disease progression marker for early detection, development of safe and effective treatment agents requires identification of key proteins that are exclusively expressed in advanced malignant breast tumors. 2-Dimensional gel electrophoresis (2-DGE) is one of the early methods used for the identification of deregulated proteins in cancers. Therefore, the proteins of benign and malignant tumors as well as breast cancer cell lines MCF-7, SKBR-3 and MDA-MB-468, were subjected to 2-DGE and relative expression calculated. Analysis of the data showed a significant increase in the intensity of 7 protein spots compared to malignant tissues and benign ones. Further, comparison of cell line proteins with tissue lysates revealed that SKBR-3 is much closer to malignant tumors, hence, may be considered for screening drug targets as well as for evaluating the efficacy of pharmacological agents. In conclusion, our 2-DGE identified key differences and similarities in the expression of proteins between breast cancer cell lines, benign and malignant tissues.