OBJECTIVETo investigate the expression of HERC4 in human breast cancer tissues and its relationship with the clinicopathological features.

METHODSRT-qPCR was used to detect mRNA expression of HERC4, and Western blotting and immunohistochemistry were employed to detect protein expression of HERC4 in 67 breast cancer tissues and adjacent breast tissues.

RESULTSThe results of RT-qPCR showed a significantly higher mRNA expression of HERC4 in breast cancer tissues than in the adjacent breast tissues (P<0.05). Western blotting demonstrated HERC4 over-expression in breast cancer tissues compared with the adjacent breast tissues (P<0.05). Immunohistochemistry revealed HERC4 expression located predominantly in the cell cytoplasm. Positive HERC4 expression was detected in 61.2% of the breast cancer tissues as compared to 19.4% in the adjacent breast tissues, and its expression level was closely correlated with TNM stage and the histological grade (P<0.05).

CONCLUSIONHERC4 is correlated with the tumorigenesis and progression of breast cancer and may serve as a potential biomarker for early diagnosis and also as a potential therapeutic target in breast cancer.

Blotting, Western ; Breast ; metabolism ; Breast Neoplasms ; metabolism ; Disease Progression ; Female ; Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic ; Humans ; Immunohistochemistry ; Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction ; Ubiquitin-Protein Ligases ; metabolism