Vaginal Gene Expression During Treatment With Aromatase Inhibitors.
Clin Breast Cancer
; 15(6): 527-535.e2, 2015 Dec.
Article
en En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-26283501
BACKGROUND: Aromatase inhibitor (AI) treatment suppresses estrogen biosynthesis and causes genitourinary symptoms of menopause such as vaginal symptoms, ultimately affecting the quality of life for many postmenopausal women with breast cancer. Thus, the aim of this study was to examine vaginal gene expression in women during treatment with AIs compared with estrogen-treated women. The secondary aim was to study the presence and localization of vaginal aromatase. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Vaginal biopsies were collected from postmenopausal women treated with AIs and from age-matched control women treated with vaginal estrogen therapy. Differential gene expression was studied with the Affymetrix Gene Chip Gene 1.0 ST Array (Affymetrix Inc, Santa Clara, CA) system, Ingenuity pathway analysis, quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction, and immunohistochemistry. RESULTS: The expression of 279 genes differed between the 2 groups; AI-treated women had low expression of genes involved in cell differentiation, proliferation, and cell adhesion. Some differentially expressed genes were found to interact indirectly with the estrogen receptor alpha. In addition, aromatase protein staining was evident in the basal and the intermediate vaginal epithelium layers, and also in stromal cells with a slightly stronger staining intensity found in AI-treated women. CONCLUSION: In this study, we demonstrated that genes involved in cell differentiation, proliferation, and cell adhesion are differentially expressed in AI-treated women. The expression of vaginal aromatase suggests that this could be the result of local and systemic inhibition of aromatase. Our results emphasize the role of estrogen for vaginal cell differentiation and proliferation and future drug candidates should be aimed at improving cell differentiation and proliferation.
Palabras clave
Texto completo:
1
Colección:
01-internacional
Base de datos:
MEDLINE
Asunto principal:
Vagina
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Neoplasias de la Mama
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Antineoplásicos Hormonales
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Inhibidores de la Aromatasa
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Transcriptoma
Tipo de estudio:
Observational_studies
/
Prevalence_studies
/
Risk_factors_studies
Aspecto:
Patient_preference
Límite:
Adult
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Aged
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Female
/
Humans
/
Middle aged
Idioma:
En
Revista:
Clin Breast Cancer
Asunto de la revista:
NEOPLASIAS
Año:
2015
Tipo del documento:
Article
Pais de publicación:
Estados Unidos