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Evaluation of the gene encoding carnitine transporter (OCTN2/SLC22A5) expression in human breast cancer and its association with clinicopathological characteristics

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Abstract

Background

Fatty acid oxidation (FAO) is a major energy-generating process in the mitochondria and supports proliferation, growth, and survival of cancer cells. l-Carnitine is an essential co-factor for carrying long-chain fatty acids into the mitochondria. The entry of l-carnitine across cell membrane is regulated by OCTN2 (SLC22A5). Thus, it can plays a significant role in the mitochondrial fatty acid oxidation. This study aimed to evaluate the OCTN2 expression and its association with clinicopathological characteristics in breast cancer.

Methods

In this work, OCTN2 was examined in 54 pairs of fresh samples of breast cancer (BC) and adjacent noncancerous tissue using quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction and immunohistochemistry (IHC). The IHC approach was also used to investigate the expression of additional clinicopathological features.

Results

The present research findings revealed that the relative expression of OCTN2 in BC tissues was substantially higher than the adjacent normal tissues. This up-regulation was correlated positively with tumor size and Ki-67 and negatively with the progesterone receptor (PR) status, providing evidence of the opposite effects of OCTN2 and PR on tumor development.

Conclusion

The study shows that the OCTN2 expression in BC patients may be used as a prognostic biomarker and a tumor oncogene. As a result, it could be considered a possible therapeutic target. Nevertheless, the significance of the findings needs to be confirmed by further studies.

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Funding

This work was financially supported by Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, I.R. Iran (Grant No. 396510) and Dezful University of Medical Sciences, I.R. Iran (Grant No. IR.DUMS.REC.1396.35).

Author information

Author notes

  1. Negar dinarvand

    Present address: Department of Clinical Biochemistry, School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Hyperlipidemia Research Center, Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences, Ahvaz, Iran

    Negar dinarvand

  2. Department of Physiology, Behbahan Faculty of Medical Sciences, Behbahan, Iran

    Farzaneh Karimi

  3. Molecular and Medicine Research Center, Khomein University of Medical Sciences, Khomein, Iran

    Reza Azizi

  4. Department of Biostatistics, School of Public Health, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran

    Sedighe Rastaghi

  5. Department of Immunology, School of Medicine, Dezful University of Medical Sciences, Dezful, Iran

    Abdolkarim Sheikhi

  6. Department of Clinical Biochemistry, School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran

    Morteza Pourfarzam

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  1. Negar dinarvand
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Contributions

MP and ND designed the experiments. ND performed experiments and analyzed the data. FK, RA, SR, and AS assisted with experimental design and data analysis. The paper was written by MP and ND. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Morteza Pourfarzam.

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Competing Interests

The authors declare no conflict of interest for this study.

Ethical approval

This study was approved by the Isfahan University of Medical Sciences Ethics Committee in accordance with Code of Ethics 396510.

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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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dinarvand, N., Karimi, F., Azizi, R. et al. Evaluation of the gene encoding carnitine transporter (OCTN2/SLC22A5) expression in human breast cancer and its association with clinicopathological characteristics. Mol Biol Rep 50, 2061–2066 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11033-022-08152-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11033-022-08152-z

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