Measurement of Total Iron in Breast Tissue Samples by Inductively Coupled Plasma-Mass Spectrometry

Year 2023, , 270 - 279, 21.12.2023

Mete Bora Tüzüner , Burcin Tüzüner

https://doi.org/10.26650/EurJBiol.2023.1313209

Abstract

Objective: Breast cancer is the commonest and the deadliest malignancy among women. Iron is known as an essential element for cell growth and division. The connection between oxidative stress, antioxidants, and progression, aggressiveness, and recurrence of breast cancer, is widely recognized to involve impaired iron metabolism. The purpose of this study was to investigate the connection between the tumor characteristics and the levels of total iron in breast tissues by employing state of the art technology, inductively-coupled plasma/mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) with our in-house analysis methodology for tissue samples.

Materials and Methods: Iron contents were determined in 25 tissue sets (matched tumor and peritumoral tissues) collected from 25 women diagnosed with invasive ductal breast cancer. In addition, three cancer-free breast tissues, obtained from breast reduction surgery, were analyzed as a normal group. Collected samples were digested and introduced to ICP-MS for iron analysis.

Results: Our method showed a low rate of measurement error (<10%). A highly significant (p<0.001) ∼3 fold difference of iron concentrations were observed in tumors (24.73±6.15 ppb/mg) as compared to peritumoral tissues (9.10±4.84 ppb/mg). As the grade and stage of the cancer increases, iron levels in tumor tissues were also found to be increased (p=0.006, p=0.022 respectively).

Conclusion: Our ICP-MS based method can be reliably performed at the established conditions for tissue specimens, and also have potential to be used in clinical practice. Understanding the relationship between tissue iron levels and tumor characteristics is essential in identifying potential prevention and treatment strategies.

Keywords

Iron, Breast cancer, ROS, ICP-MS

Thanks

Tülin Öztürk and Şennur İlvan from Department of Pathology, Cerrahpasa School of Medicine, Istanbul University-Cerrahpaşa, for access to breast tissue samples and histopathological evaluation. Jülide Coşkun for her expert technical support with ICP-MS analysis. Fehime Aksungar from Department of Basic Sciences, Medical Biochemistry, School of Medicine for useful discussions and invaluable opinions during the optimization process of the experiments.

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