Mammaglobin-A Explained

Mammaglobin-A also known as secretoglobin family 2A member 2 is a protein that in humans is encoded by the SCGB2A2 gene.^{[1] [2] [3]}

Function

SCGB2A2 is a member of the superfamily of secretoglobins, a group of small dimeric secreted and sometimes glycosylated proteins. Expressed mainly in mucosa, secretoglobins seem to be involved in cell signalling, immune response, and chemotaxis, and may also serve as transporters for steroid hormones in humans.^[4]

Clinical significance

SCGB2A2 expression is highly specific of mammary tissue, and is increasingly used for identification and detection of disseminated breast cancer cells.^[5]

Further reading

• Wilson PC, de Bouteiller O, Liu YJ, Potter K, Banchereau J, Capra JD, Pascual V. Jacques Banchereau . Somatic hypermutation introduces insertions and deletions into immunoglobulin V genes. . J. Exp. Med. . 187 . 1 . 59–70 . 1998 . 9419211 . 2199186 . 10.1084/jem.187.1.59 .
• Fischer M, Küppers R . Human IgA- and IgM-secreting intestinal plasma cells carry heavily mutated VH region genes. . Eur. J. Immunol. . 28 . 9 . 2971–7 . 1998 . 9754584 . 10.1002/(SICI)1521-4141(199809)28:09<2971::AID-IMMU2971>3.0.CO;2-3 . 26597499 .
• Carter D, Douglass JF, Cornellison CD, Retter MW, Johnson JC, Bennington AA, Fleming TP, Reed SG, Houghton RL, Diamond DL, Vedvick TS . Purification and characterization of the mammaglobin/lipophilin B complex, a promising diagnostic marker for breast cancer. . Biochemistry . 41 . 21 . 6714–22 . 2002 . 12022875 . 10.1021/bi0159884 .
• Izmailova E, Bertley FM, Huang Q, Makori N, Miller CJ, Young RA, Aldovini A . HIV-1 Tat reprograms immature dendritic cells to express chemoattractants for activated T cells and macrophages. . Nat. Med. . 9 . 2 . 191–7 . 2003 . 12539042 . 10.1038/nm822 . 26145639 .
• Cerveira N, Torres L, Rocha P, Bizarro S, Pereira D, Abreu J, Henrique R, Teixeira MR, Castedo S . Highly sensitive detection of the MGB1 transcript (mammaglobin) in the peripheral blood of breast cancer patients. . Int. J. Cancer . 108 . 4 . 592–5 . 2004 . 14696125 . 10.1002/ijc.11609 . 13567521 .
• Ouellette RJ, Richard D, Maïcas E . RT-PCR for mammaglobin genes, MGB1 and MGB2, identifies breast cancer micrometastases in sentinel lymph nodes. . Am. J. Clin. Pathol. . 121 . 5 . 637–43 . 2004 . 15151203 . 10.1309/MMAC-TXT5-5L8Q-TKC1 . 35965043 .
• Ferrucci PF, Rabascio C, Mazzetta C, Cocorocchio E, Agazzi A, Vanazzi A, Cinieri S, Peccatori FA, Paolucci M, Bertolini F, Martinelli G . Mammaglobin expression in leukapheresis products is a predictive marker of poor prognosis in women with high-risk breast cancer. . Clin. Cancer Res. . 10 . 18 Pt 1 . 6039–46 . 2005 . 15447988 . 10.1158/1078-0432.CCR-03-0453 . 28424184 .
• O'Brien NA, O'Donovan N, Ryan B, Hill AD, McDermott E, O'Higgins N, Duffy MJ . Mammaglobin a in breast cancer: existence of multiple molecular forms. . Int. J. Cancer . 114 . 4 . 623–7 . 2005 . 15609337 . 10.1002/ijc.20780 . 23187797 . free .
• Roncella S, Ferro P, Bacigalupo B, Pronzato P, Tognoni A, Falco E, Gianquinto D, Ansaldo V, Dessanti P, Fais F, Rosai J, Fedeli F . Human mammaglobin mRNA is a reliable molecular marker for detecting occult breast cancer cells in peripheral blood. . J. Exp. Clin. Cancer Res. . 24 . 2 . 265–71 . 2005 . 16110760 .
• Span PN, Sweep FC . Mammaglobin as molecular marker of breast cancer (micro)metastases. . Clin. Cancer Res. . 11 . 19 Pt 1 . 7043–7044 . 2006 . 16203799 . 10.1158/1078-0432.CCR-05-1378 . 39344532 .
• Roncella S, Ferro P, Bacigalupo B, Dessanti P, Giannico A, Gorji N, Moroni M, Tozzini S, Pensa F, Gianquinto D, Fais F, Pronzato P, Fedeli F . Relationship between human mammaglobin mRNA expression in breast cancer tissue and clinico-pathologic features of the tumors. . J. Exp. Clin. Cancer Res. . 25 . 1 . 65–72 . 2006 . 16761620 .
• Ntoulia M, Stathopoulou A, Ignatiadis M, Malamos N, Mavroudis D, Georgoulias V, Lianidou ES . Detection of Mammaglobin A-mRNA-positive circulating tumor cells in peripheral blood of patients with operable breast cancer with nested RT-PCR. . Clin. Biochem. . 39 . 9 . 879–87 . 2007 . 16925986 . 10.1016/j.clinbiochem.2006.06.009 .
• Gimbergues P, Dauplat MM, Cayre A, Durando X, Le Bouedec G, Finat-Duclos F, Portefaix G, Kwiatkowski F, Dauplat J, Penault-Llorca F, Tchirkov A . Correlation between molecular metastases in sentinel lymph nodes of breast cancer patients and St Gallen risk category. . Eur J Surg Oncol . 33 . 1 . 16–22 . 2007 . 17071045 . 10.1016/j.ejso.2006.09.013 .
• Sasaki E, Tsunoda N, Hatanaka Y, Mori N, Iwata H, Yatabe Y . Breast-specific expression of MGB1/mammaglobin: an examination of 480 tumors from various organs and clinicopathological analysis of MGB1-positive breast cancers. . Mod. Pathol. . 20 . 2 . 208–14 . 2007 . 17192791 . 10.1038/modpathol.3800731 . free .

Notes and References

1. Watson MA, Darrow C, Zimonjic DB, Popescu NC, Fleming TP . Structure and transcriptional regulation of the human mammaglobin gene, a breast cancer associated member of the uteroglobin gene family localized to chromosome 11q13 . Oncogene . 16 . 6 . 817–24 . Mar 1998 . 9488047 . 10.1038/sj.onc.1201597 . free .
2. Watson MA, Fleming TP . Mammaglobin, a mammary-specific member of the uteroglobin gene family, is overexpressed in human breast cancer . Cancer Res . 56 . 4 . 860–5 . Jul 1996 . 8631025 .
3. Web site: Entrez Gene: SCGB2A2 secretoglobin, family 2A, member 2.
4. Brown NM, Stenzel TT, Friedman PN, Henslee J, Huper G, Marks JR . Evaluation of expression based markers for the detection of breast cancer cells . . 97 . 1 . 41–47 . 2006 . 16319979 . 10.1007/s10549-005-9085-8 . 22307616 .
5. Lacroix M . Significance, detection and markers of disseminated breast cancer cells . . . 13 . 4 . 1033–1067 . 2006 . 17158753 . 10.1677/ERC-06-0001 . 10708900 . Marc Lacroix (biochemist) .