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Associations of alcohol use with expression of stromal markers in benign breast biopsy samples
Anjoli Armstrong1, Yujing J Heng2, Brian R Sardella2
1University of Florida, College of Public Health and Health Professions and College of Medicine, Department of Epidemiology, Gainesville, FL, USA.
Background:
We explored the associations of alcohol consumption with expression of α-Smooth Muscle Actin (α-SMA), Tenascin-C (TNC), Fibroblast Activation Protein (FAP), Matrix Metalloproteinase-14 (MMP14), and Calcyclin (s100a6) stromal markers in benign breast biopsy samples.
Methods:
The study included 683 cancer-free women from the Nurses' Health Study II who had biopsy-confirmed benign breast disease (BBD). Alcohol consumption was assessed with semi-quantitative Food Frequency Questionnaires. The data on breast cancer (BCa) risk factors were obtained from biennial questionnaires. Immunofluorescence for stromal markers was performed on tissue microarrays. For each core, the % positivity was quantified by inForm v2.6.0. Generalised linear regression was used to examine associations between alcohol consumption (recent [at biopsy date] and cumulative average from all available questionnaires before the biopsy date) and log-transformed expression of each marker, adjusting for BCa risk factors and BBD subtype.
Results:
In multivariate analysis, we observed a suggestive positive association of cumulative average alcohol with TNC (β per 11 g/day = 0.59, 95% CI -0.03,1.22, p = 0.06). Alcohol consumption was not associated with α-SMA, FAP, s100a6, and MMP14.
Conclusion:
Alcohol consumption may be associated with an increased normal stromal fibroblast activation as measured by TNC expression in histologically normal breast tissue. Future studies are warranted to confirm our findings.
