Expression Of Estrogen Sulfotransferase In The Mammary Gland Of The Hypertrophic Breast And Its Significance

Objective To detect the expression of estrogen sulfotransferase(EST) in the mammary gland of the hypertrophic breast ,thus its function and significance in the pathogenesis of breast hypertrophy can be investigated.Method The mammary gland of samples( from 32 cases hypertrophic breast and 15 cases normal voluminal breast )were examined for EST expression by EnVision two step method immunohistochemistry.With the same method,the expression of EST in the mammary gland was detected in the different types of hypertrophic breast (19 cases gland-associated hypertrophic breast and 13 cases fat-associated hypertrophic breast) tissue specimens.Results The positive signal of EST was displayed in the way that brown granules were mostly distributed in the cytoplasm of mammary gland duct epithelium,and were hardly distributed in the fat cell. The positive expression rate of EST was 34.4%(11/32) in the mammary gland of the 32 cases hypertrophic breast sample and 93.3%(14/15) in the mammary gland of the 15 cases normal voluminal breast sample,showing a significant difference between the two groups(P<0.01). The positive expression rate of EST was 10.5%(2/19) in the mammary gland of the 19 cases gland-associated hypertrophic breast sample and was 69.2%(9/13) in the mammary gland of the 13 cases fat-associated hypertrophic breast sample, also showing a significant difference between the two groups(P<0.01).Conclusions Decrease or deletion of EST in the mammary gland may be related to the development of hypertrophic breast.and it may has close connection with gland -associated hypertrophic breast,but not be the definite pathogeny of fat-associated hypertrophic breast.The research on expression of EST in the mammary gland of the hypertrophic breast,was not only contributed to determine the etiology of breast hypertrophy further,but also provided new thinking for the therapy of hypertrophic breast.