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Figure 1 | Breast Cancer Research

Figure 1

From: Frequent PTEN genomic alterations and activated phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase pathway in basal-like breast cancer cells

Figure 1

Characterisation of basal-like carcinomas (BLCs) and human epidermal growth factor receptor overexpressing (HER2+) carcinomas from human biopsies. (a) Selection and characterisation of human samples by immunohistochemistry (IHC). Thirteen BLCs were first selected as grade III triple-negative ductal carcinomas (negative for oestrogen receptor (ER), progesterone receptor (PR) and HER2 expression) and then characterised for cytokeratin 5/6 (CK5/6), CK14 and epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) staining. The control series was composed of 11 hormone receptor negative- and grade III-matched HER2+ carcinomas. Tumours contained between 50% and 90% tumour cells revealed by haematoxylin-eosin-safran staining. (b) Higher HER2 protein expression in HER2+ carcinomas compared with BLCs. The box plot illustrates the expression of total HER2 protein expression measured by reverse phase protein array (RPPA) in human BLCs and HER2+ carcinomas. An outlier is present within the HER2+ population (open circle). The y axis represents logarithmic transformed HER2 relative quantification. The p value (*** p < 0.001) is represented (Mann-Whitney test). Data are representative of three separate RPPA experiments. (c) Tumours selected by immunohistochemistry clustered according to their gene expression signature. A hierarchical clustering was performed on the intrinsic/UNC genes as described [46]. (i) Overview of complete cluster diagram. Each row represents a gene and each column a human tumour. Black is for no change, red for up-regulation and green for down-regulation of gene expression. (ii) Experimental sample-associated dendrogram. Red dendrogram branch represents HER2+ carcinomas and blue designs basal-like carcinomas. (iii) HER2+ signature. A HER2+ expression cluster was observed and contained multiples genes from the 17q11 amplicon including HER2 and growth factor receptor-bound protein 7 (GRB7) (typed in red) as previously described [46]. (iv) Basal-like signature. A basal-like expression cluster was found and contained genes previously identified to be characteristic of basal epithelial cells such as v-kit, FOXC1 and P-cadherin (written in red) [46].

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