Differential expression and its significance of Toll like receptors in human breast cancer cells with different invasive capacities

Objective To study the expression and significances of Toll like receptors (TLRs) in human high invasive breast cancer cells MDA-MB-231 and poor invasive breast cancer cells MCF-7. Methods TLRs mRNA expression levels were detected in breast cancer cell lines MDA-MB-231 and MCF-7 by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and real-time PCR. TLRs protein expression levels were detected by flow cytometry (FCM) and immunofluorescence methods. Results Human breast cancer cell lines MDA-MB-231 and MCF-7 expressed TLRs including TLR1-TLR10 at both mRNA and protein levels. The mRNA expression of TLR4, TLR6, TLR8 and TLR9 in MDA-MB-231 cells was obviously higher than that in MCF-7 cells respectively, and the expression in MDA-MB-231 cells was (39.4 ±3. 2),(10. 8 ± 2. 4), (5. 8 ± 2. 6 ) and (3. 2 ± 2. 5) times as much as that in MCF-7 cells respectively ( P ＜0. 01). Protein expression of TLR4, TLR6, TLR7 and TLR5 in MDA-MB-231 cells was significantly higher than that in MCF-7 cells respectively, and the expression in MDA-MB-231 cells was (6.4 ± 1.6),(4. 1 ± 0. 9), (3. 7 ± 0. 8 ) and (2. 8 ± 0.4) times as much as that in MCF-7 cells respectively ( P ＜0. 01). Conclusion TLR1-TLR10 was expressed widely and differentially in human breast cancer cell lines MDA-MB-231 and MCF-7. TLR4 mRNA and protein levels were the highest out of TLR1-TLR10.The differential expressions of TLRs may be related to the invasion capacity of human breast cancer cells.TLR4 may provide basement for breast cancer target gene therapy. Key words: TLRs; Breast carcinoma ; Invasion