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Overexpression of HMGA1 correlates with the malignant status and prognosis of breast cancer

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Abstract

High mobility group A1 (HMGA1), as a major member of HMGA family, plays an important part in promotion of cell proliferation and motility, induction of epithelial-mesenchymal transition, and maintenance of stemness, but little is known about the pathological role of HMGA1 in breast cancer patients. The aim of this study was to identify the pathological roles of HMGA1 in breast cancer. In our results, we found that mRNA and protein expression levels of HMGA1 were markedly higher in breast cancer tissues than in normal breast tissues. Using immunohistochemistry, high levels of HMGA1 protein were positively correlated with the status of histological grade (I–II vs. III–IV; P = 0.023), clinical stage (I–II vs. III–IV; P = 0.008), tumor size (T1–T2 vs. T3–T4; P = 0.015), lymph node metastasis (N0–N1 vs. N2–N3; P = 0.002), distant metastasis (M0 vs. M1; P < 0.001), and triple-negative breast cancer (No vs. Yes; P = 0.014) of breast cancer patients. Patients with higher HMGA1 expression had a significantly shorter overall survival time than did patients with low HMGA1 expression. Multivariate analysis indicated that the level of HMGA1 expression was an independent prognostic indicator (P < 0.001) for the survival of patients with breast cancer. In conclusion, HMGA1 plays an important role on breast cancer aggressiveness and prognosis and may act as a promising target for prognostic prediction.

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Acknowledgments

This study was supported by the Central South University Postdoctoral Funding (No. 149938) and Open-End Fund for the Valuable and Precision Instruments of Central South University (CSUZC201537).

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    Authors and Affiliations

    1. Department of Occupational and Environmental Health, School of Public Health, Central South University, 110 Xiangya Road, Changsha, 410078, Hunan, China

      Ruixue Huang & Fei Yang

    2. Medical Examination Center, No. 1 Hospital of Zhuzhou City, Zhuzhou, 421000, Hunan, China

      Dequn Huang

    3. Hunan Prevention and Treatment Institute of Occupational Diseases, Changsha, 410078, Hunan, China

      Weirong Dai

    Authors
    1. Ruixue Huang
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    2. Dequn Huang
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    3. Weirong Dai
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    4. Fei Yang
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    Corresponding author

    Correspondence to Fei Yang.

    Additional information

    Ruixue Huang, Dequn Huang, Weirong Dai have contributed equally to this study.

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    Huang, R., Huang, D., Dai, W. et al. Overexpression of HMGA1 correlates with the malignant status and prognosis of breast cancer. Mol Cell Biochem 404, 251–257 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11010-015-2384-4

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    • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11010-015-2384-4

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