Mutational analysis of prohibitin--a highly conserved gene in Indian female breast cancer cases.

Prohibitin (PHB) is a chaperone protein which is highly conserved evolutionarily. It shows significant homology with the Drosophila cc gene which is considered important for development and differentiation of Drosophila melanogaster. Investigations have revealed an involvement of PHB in cellular proliferation and development, apoptosis, signal transduction, mitochondrial function and regulation of the estrogen and androgen receptors. Therefore, we conducted the present study to analyze mutations in the highly conserved region in Indian female breast cancer patients. Conventional PCR-SSCP and Automated DNA sequencing were performed with a total of 105 breast cancer samples along with adjacent normal tissue. Of the total, 14.2% (15/105) demonstrated a mutation status of prohibitin observed in our study population. We identified a novel missense mutation (Thr>Ser), a novel deletion of T nucleotide in an intron adjacent to intron-exon boundary and a previously determined missense mutation (Val>Ala). A statistically significant correlation was obtained which suggested that prohibitin may be associated with tumor development and/or progression of at least some proportion of breast cancers.