Girdin correlated with autophagy in invasive ductal breast carcinomas.

Aims and background. Increasing evidence claims that autophagy is essential for breast cancer progression. Girdin was found highly expressed in breast cancers. It has been reported that Girdin attenuates autophagy in HeLa cells. We explored the relationship between Girdin expression and autophagic patterns in breast cancer. Methods and study design. In the study, Girdin expression and autophagic activity were investigated in a series of 99 invasive ductal breast carcinomas after immuno-histochemical staining for the autophagy-associated proteins LC3-II and Girdin. Results. The level of Girdin expression negatively correlated with LC3-II level, which represents autophagic activity (r = -0.289), and positively correlated with lymph node metastasis (r = 0.472). Girdin level was found no different in the "diffuse cytoplasmic" and "stone-like" patterns of LC3-II. Conclusions. Up-regulated autophagy was negatively associated with Girdin level. There was a significant correlation between Girdin expression and lymph nodes metastasis in invasive ductal breast carcinoma.