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. 1995 Dec;72(6):1420–1426. doi: 10.1038/bjc.1995.524

Expression of fibroblast growth factor 1 is lower in breast cancer than in the normal human breast.

G S Bansal 1, C Yiangou 1, R C Coope 1, J J Gomm 1, Y A Luqmani 1, R C Coombes 1, C L Johnston 1
PMCID: PMC2034076  PMID: 8519654

Abstract

We have measured the amount of fibroblast growth factor 1 (FGF-1) mRNA and protein in primary breast cancers and non-malignant breast tissue and have found greatly reduced levels in breast cancer compared with non-malignant tissue. A total of 116 breast cancers and 37 biopsies taken from non-malignant breast were compared for FGF-1 mRNA expression using reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and significantly lower levels were found in the cancer tissues (P < 0.001). These findings were confirmed at the protein level where four out of five breast cancers contained no detectable FGF-1 and a fifth cancer had a low level of FGF-1 compared with three samples from reduction mammoplasties. Similar results were obtained from breast cell lines in which 80% of cancer cell lines had very low levels of FGF-1, whereas all non-malignant breast cell lines contained higher levels of FGF-1. Immunohistochemical analysis indicated that FGF-1 was present in the luminal epithelial cells of the non-malignant breast but was absent from cancer cells. The decreased levels of FGF-1 in breast cancer may indicate that stimulation of cancer cells is resulting in down-regulation of FGF-1 expression or may implicate FGF-1 as a differentiation factor rather than a growth factor at its physiological concentration in the breast.

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