Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Expression of monoclonal-antibody-defined antigens in fractions isolated from human breast carcinomas and patients' serum

  • Short Communication
  • Breast Cancer, MUC1 Mucin, Immune Complexes, Western Blotting
  • Published:
Cancer Immunology, Immunotherapy Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The aim of this study was to examine tissue from patients with breast carcinoma or benign breast disease for the presence of monoclonal-antibody-defined antigens, including the MUC1 mucin and carcinoembryonic antigen CEA. The tests were performed by sodium dodecyl sulphate/polyacrylamide gel electrophoretic separation of proteins, electrophoretic transfer to nitrocellulose membranes and immunostaining with the monoclonal antibodies. Some of the antigens identified are known to circulate at high levels in some but not necessarily all, breast carcinoma patients. Serum from a panel of ten breast cancer patients was subjected to a fractionation procedure designed to release antigen from immune complexes, and again these smaples were analysed for the presence of monoclonal-antibody-defined antigens. A high frequency of positive reactions was detected by the anti-MUC1 monoclonal antibody C595 with both breast carcinoma subcellular membrane fractions as well as antigen fractions eluted from circulating immune complexes. No reactions were observed with equivalent materials from benign breast disease samples. The findings illustrate the variability in antigen expression between breast tumours. The data also indicate that a proportion of patients respond to their tumour by the production of antibodies that recognise the MUC1 antigen in their circulation.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

References

  1. Abecassis J, Petit JC, Eber M, Klein T, Rodier D, Jauser JC, Methlin G (1985) Complexes immuns circulants dans le cancer du sein. Bull Cancer (Paris) 72: 42

    Google Scholar 

  2. Beard D, Haskell C (1986) Carcinoembryonic antigen in breast cancer. Am J Med 80: 241

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  3. Bocker W, Schweikart G, Pollow K (1985) Immunohistochemical demonstration of carcinoembryonic (CEA) in 120 mammary carcinomas and its correlation with tumor type, grading, staging, plasma-CEA and biochemical receptor status. Pathol Res Pract 180: 490

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  4. Brown A, Feizi T, Gooi HC, Embleton M, Picard J, Baldwin RW (1983) A monoclonal antibody against human colonic adenoma recognizes difucosylated type-2 blood group chains. Biosci Rep 3: 163

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  5. Creighton WD, Lambert PH, Miescher PA (1973) Detection of antibodies and soluble antigen-antibody complexes by precipitation with polyethylene glycol. J Immunol 11: 1219

    Google Scholar 

  6. Croce MV, Pasqualini RS, Segal-Eiras A (1987) Circulating immune complexes in breast cancer patients. Medicina 47: 371

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  7. Croce MV, Segal-Eiras A (1992) Circulating immune complexes (CIC) and carcinoembryonic antigen in patients with colorectal cancer. J Exp Clin Cancer Res 11: 223

    Google Scholar 

  8. Dixon AR, Price MR, Hand CW, Sibley PEC, Selby C, Blamey RW (1993) Epithelial mucin core antigen (EMCA) in assessing therapeutic response in advanced breast cancer — a comparison with CA15.3. Br J Cancer 68: 947

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  9. Ellis IO, Hinton CP, MacNay J, Elston CW, Robins A, Owainati A, Blamey RW, Baldwin RW, Ferry B (1985) Immunocytochemical staining of breast carcinoma with the monoclonal antibody NCRC 11: a new prognostic indicator. Br Med J 290: 881

    Google Scholar 

  10. Gamble AR, Bell JA, Ronan SE, Pearson D, Ellis IO (1993) Use of tumour marker immunoreactivity to identify primary site of metastatic cancer. Br Med J 306: 295

    Google Scholar 

  11. Gander JE (1984) Gel protein stains: glycoproteins. Methods Enzymol 104: 447

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  12. Gilead Z, Troy F, Sulitzeanu D (1981) Isolation and electrophoretic analysis of immune complexes from patients with breast cancer. Eur J Cancer Clin Oncol 17: 1165

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  13. Gourevitch M, Mensdorff-Pouilly SV, Litvinov SV, Verstraeten A, Van Kamp GJ, Kenemans P, Hilgers J (1993) Circulating immune complexes involving polymorphic epithelial mucin (PEM) might impair CA15.3 assay results (abstract). In: Klapdor R (ed) 7th Hamburg Symposium on Tumour Markers. p. 57

  14. Gupta RK, Leitch A, Morton DL (1983) Detection of tumour associated antigen in eluates from protein A columns used for ex vivo immunoadsorption of plasma from melanoma patients by radioimmunoassay. Clin Exp Immunol 53: 589

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  15. Herberman R, Bordes M, Lambert P, Luthra H, Robins RA, Sizaret PH, Theofilopoulos A (1981) Report on international comparative evaluation of possible value of assays for IC for diagnosis of human breast cancer. Int J Cancer 27: 569

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  16. Höffken K, Meredith ID, Robins RA, Baldwin RW, Davies CJ, Blamey RW (1978) Immune complexes and prognosis of human breast cancer. Lancet 1: 672

    Google Scholar 

  17. Idikio HA, Manickavel V (1991) Lewis blood group antigens (a and b) in human breast tissues: loss of lewis-b in breast cancer cells and correlation with tumour grade. Cancer 68: 1303

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  18. Ioannides CG, Fisk B, Jerome KR, Wharton JT, Finn OJ (1993) Cytotoxic T-cells from ovarian malignant tumors can recognise polymorphic epithelial mucin core peptides. J Immunol 151: 3693

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  19. Jerome K, Barnd D, Bendt K, Boyer C, Taylor-Papadimitriou J, McKenzie I, Bast R, Finn OJ (1991) Cytotoxic T-lymphocytes derived from patients with breast adenocarcinoma recognize an epitope present on the protein core of a mucin molecule preferentially expressed by malignant cells. Cancer Res 51: 2908

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  20. Kiang D, Greenberg L, Kennedy B (1990) Tumour marker kinetics in the monitoring of breast cancer. Cancer 65: 193

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  21. Kotera Y, Fontenot D, Pecher G, Metzgar RS, Finn OJ (1994) Humoral immunity against a tandem repeat epitope of human mucin MUC-1 in sera from breast pancreatic and colon cancer patients. Cancer Res 54: 2856

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  22. Laemmli UK (1970) Cleavage of structural proteins during the assembly of the head of bacteriophage T4. Nature (Lond) 227: 680

    Google Scholar 

  23. Lowry OH, Rosebrough NJ, Farr AL, Randall RJ (1951) Protein measurement with the Folin phenol reagent. J Biol Chem 193: 265

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  24. Mensdorff-Pouilly SV, Gourevitch M, Verstraeten A, Van Kamp GJ, Kenemans P, Hilgers J (1993) Circulating immune complexes containing polymorphic epithelial mucin (PEM) in benign breast tumor and breast and ovarian cancer patients (abstract). In: Klapdor (ed) 7th Hamburg Symposium on Tumour Markers, p. 56

  25. Mughal AW, Hortobagyi GN, Iritsche H, Buzdar AU, Yap HY, Blumenschein GR (1983) Serial plasma carcinoembryonic antigen measurements during treatment of metastatic breast cancer. JAMA 249: 1881

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  26. Narita T, Funahashi H, Satoh Y, Watanabe T, Sakamoto J, Takagi H (1993) Association of expression of blood group-related carbohydrate antigens with prognosis in breast cancer. Cancer 71: 3044

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  27. Neri B, Comparini T, Ciatto S, Cataliotti L, Distante V, Bartalucci S (1985) Circulating immune complexes (CIC) as tumor markers in the follow up of breast cancer. Cancer Detect Prev 8: 53

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  28. Papsidero L, Namoto T, Snyderman M, Chu T (1979) Immune complexes in breast cancer patients as detected by C1q binding. Cancer 44: 1636

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  29. Price MR (1988) Epitopes of carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) defined by monoclonal antibodies. Br J Cancer 57: 165

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  30. Price MR, Campbell DG, Robins RA, Baldwin RW (1983) Characteristics of a cell surface antigen defined by anti-human osteogenic sarcoma monoclonal antibody. Eur J Cancer Clin Oncol 19: 81

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  31. Price MR, Edwards S, Owainati A, Bullock JE, Ferry B, Robins RA, Baldwin RW (1985) Multiple epitopes on a human breast carcinoma associated antigen. Int J Cancer 36: 567

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  32. Price MR, Hudecz F, O'Sullivan C, Baldwin RW, Edwards P, Tendler S (1990) Immunological and structural features of the protein core of human polymorphic epithelial mucin. Mol Immunol 27: 795

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  33. Repetto L, Onetto M, Gardin G, Costanzi B, Giudici S, Vitiello E, Merlini L, Naso C, Zannini C, Paganuzzi M (1993) Serum CEA, CA 15-3 and MCA in breast cancer patients: a clinical evaluation. Cancer Detect Prev 17: 411

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  34. Robertson JF, Ellis IO, Bell J, Todd JH, Robins RA, Elston W, Blamey RW (1989) Carcinoembryonic antigen immunocytochemistry in primary breast cancer. Cancer 64: 1638

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  35. Robertson JFR, Pearson D, Price MR, Selby C, Pearson J, Blamey RW, Howell A (1991) Prospective assessment of the role of five serum markers in breast cancer. Cancer Immunol Immunother 33: 403

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  36. Rughetti A, Turchi V, Ghetti CA, Scambia G, Panici PB, Roncucci G, Mancuso SM, Frati L, Nuti M (1993) Human B-cell immune response to the polymorphic epithelial mucin. Cancer Res 53: 2457

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  37. Tondini C, Hayes DE, Gelman R, Henderson IC, Kufe DW (1988) Comparison of CA 15.3 and carcinoembryonic antigen in monitoring the clinical course of patients with metastatic breast cancer. Cancer Res 48: 4107

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  38. Towbin H, Staehelin T, Gordon J (1979) Electrophoretic transfer of proteins from polyacrylamide gels to nitrocellulose sheets: procedures and some applications. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 76: 4350–4354

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  39. Von Kleist S, Bombardieri E, Buraggi G, Gion M, Hertel A, Hor G, Noujaim A, Schwatrz M, Senekowitsch R, Wittekind C (1993) Immunodiagnosis of tumours. Eur J Cancer 29 A: 1622

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. CINIBA, Facultad de Ciencias Médicas Calle 60 y 120, 1900, La Plata, Argentina

    M. V. Croce & A. Segal-Eiras

  2. Cancer Research Laboratories, Dept. of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, England

    M. R. Price

Authors
  1. M. V. Croce
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. M. R. Price
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. A. Segal-Eiras
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Croce, M.V., Price, M.R. & Segal-Eiras, A. Expression of monoclonal-antibody-defined antigens in fractions isolated from human breast carcinomas and patients' serum. Cancer Immunol Immunother 40, 132–137 (1995). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01520296

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01520296

Key words

Search

Navigation