Association Of BTLA Gene Polymorphisms With The Risk Of Malignant Breast Cancer In Heilongjiang Province Of Chinese Women

Objective: B and T lymphocyte attenuator (BTLA) is an immuno-inhibitoryreceptor and co-stimulating factor with the ability to deliver inhibitory signals forsuppressing lymphocyte activation.Methods: To identify the influences of BTLA gene polymorphisms on the risk ofsporadic breast cancer, a case-control group was conducted in women from Northeastof China, Heilongjiang Province. We genotyped five SNPs in BTLA gene amongexons（rs9288952） and introns（rs1844089, rs2705535, rs2633562, rs2931761）. Ourresearch groups consist of592breast cancer patients without heredity relationship and506age/sex-matched healthy controls in the same region. Genotypes were determinedby the polymerase chain reaction restriction fragment length polymorphism(PCR-RFLP) and polymerase chain reaction with confronting two-pair primer(PCR-CTPP) methods. Data was analyzed using the Chisquare test by EXCEL，SPSSand Haploview software.Results: The results of DNA sequencing were showed with Chromas software. Inour research, all the distribution of genotypes was in Hardy–Weinberg equilibrium.The frequencies of BTLA rs1844089CT and rs2705535AG were higher in patientsthan in controls (P=0.0164; P=0.0031), and rs rs1844089CC genotype, rs2705535GG genotype and rs9288952CC genotype had lower incidences in patients than incontrols (P=0.0483; P=0.0098; P=0.0400). The frequency of haplotype, CAAAT wassignificantly higher in patients (P=0.0112). Strong association was showed betweenfive SNPs of BTLA gene and tumor size, estrogen receptor (ER), progesteronereceptor (PR), C-erbB-2and P53statuses. There was no relationship in BTLA gene polymorphisms and lymph node metastasis. The strong association was observedbetween tumor size, ER, PR, P53and the CAGAT(P=0.012), TAAGT(P=0.0378),CAGAT(P=0.0013), CAAGT(P=0.0373) and CAAAT(P=0.0306) haplotypes.Conclusion: These results firstly suggested that BTLA gene polymorphisms mayaffect the sporadic breast cancer risk and prognostic factors in northeast of Chinesewomen, Heilongjiang Province.