Expression of Multiple Cancer/Testis Genes in Several Breast Cancer Cell Lines

Cancer-Testis genes (CT-genes) are a gene family that only expressed in normal testis tissue and some of them are randomly expressed in some types of cancers. These genes can be promising cases for immunotherapy of breast cancer. This research was carried out for comparison of the expression frequencies these genes in cancerous cell lines and tumor samples. In this analytical-descriptive study, after providing three breast-cancer cell lines and their cultures in appropriate medium, RNA extraction and cDNA synthesis were done and expressions of NY-ESO-1 1a, NY-ESO-1 1b, SCP1, SSX-2 and MAGE-3 genes were studied using multiplex real time-polymerase chain reaction (multiplex RT-PCR) method. None of cell lines expressed Cancer-Testis genes; but all of them expressed glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH) gene (internal control). According to the role of these genes in gametogenesis, we can consider that their expressions in cancer cells are based on dedifferentiation. The observed difference between expression frequency of these genes in breast-cancer cell lines and tumor samples can be related to several passages which are carried out for providing cell lines. By examining more cell lines of breast cancer for these genes, we can achieve more accurate results.