Associations of Biomarkers of Inflammation and Breast Cancer in the Breast Adipose Tissue of Women with Combined Measures of Adiposity

Figure 1

Relative expression of CYP19A1, ER-α, AIF1, COX2, IL-6, TNF-α, and LEP mRNA in breast adipose tissue, as obtained with RT-qPCR. Box plots represent RQ expression values for each adiposity group. BMI and WC were dichotomized at the median and combined to form the following low (LO) and high (HI) adiposity combined categories: BMI^LOWC^LO, BMI^HIWC^LO, BMI^HIWC^HI, and BMI^LOWC^HI. For each adiposity group, biomarker median values are shown as horizontal lines; gray boxes represent the interquartile range and the bars the full range. Kruskal–Wallis test showed significant differences in biomarker gene expression across adiposity groups for (a) CYP19A1 ( = 0.017), (e) IL-6 ( = 0.0024), (f) TNF-α ( = 0.022), and (g) LEP ( < 0.00001). There were no significant differences in expression of (b) ER-α ( = 0.42), (c) AIF1 ( = 0.079), and (d) COX2 ( = 0.11). Significant differences remained after post hoc Dunn’s test using Benjamini-Hochberg correction in (a) CYP19A1, BMI^LOWC^LO vs. BMI^HIWC^HI,  = 0.014, (e) IL-6, BMI^LOWC^LO vs. BMI^HIWC^HI,  = 0.005, and BMI^LOWC^LO vs. BMI^LOWC^HI,  = 0.034, and (g) LEP, BMI^LOWC^LO vs. BMI^HIWC^HI,  < 0.00001, and BMI^LOWC^LO vs. BMI^LOWC^HI,  < 0.01. RT-PCR = quantitative real-time PCR; RQ = relative quantification; BMI, body mass index; WC = waist circumference.

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