Kaleb June
Pronouns: He, Him, His
Research Mentor(s): Zora Djuric
Research Mentor School/College/Department: Family Medicine / Medicine
Program: UROP
Session: Session 7 (4:40pm – 5:30pm)
Authors: Kaleb June, Celina Kleer, Tarah Ballinger, Katelyn Zebrowski, Zora Djuric
Abstract
Epidemiological studies have shown that many factors contribute to breast cancer risk. However, there is less information on the biological changes in normal breast tissue that might be associated with risk. Enhancer of Zeste Homologue 2, EZH2, is normally expressed in cells and is essential to determining cell identity. In breast cancer, EZH2 is deregulated and overexpressed which has effects on estrogen receptors, although not completely understood. Fatty acid synthase, FASN, is used in the creation of fatty acid chains for various enzymes. It is overexpressed leading to overactivity and making FASN one suspected biomarker of breast cancer. Normal breast tissues were obtained from the Komen tissue bank at Indiana University and slides of breast tissue were stained for EZH2 protein and FASN protein from 4 different groups of healthy white women with low/high Gail scores and low/high BMIs. Then 4 individuals scored the propensity and intensity of the stain in the epithelium. The scoring was done with the EP/PR pharmDx scoring system. The scores were averaged and the data was unblinded. The data will be analyzed by looking at associations of protein expression and Gail risk score controlling for age and BMI. That data will be useful to show that these enzymes are significantly different across groups and that a high Gail score and High BMI lead to an increased expression of EZH2 protein and increased FASN proteins. These data will be useful in understanding the biological mechanisms that affect the carcinogenic pathway in the human breast. This in turn can be used to develop prevention strategies that target these pathways.
