Mitochondrial DNA alterations correlate with the pathological status and the immunological ER, PR, HER-2/neu, p53 and Ki-67 expression in breast invasive ductal carcinoma.

We analyzed the changes in mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) copy numbers and the shifting of mtDNA D310 sequence variations (D310 mutation) with their relationships to pathological status and the expression levels of estrogen receptor (ER), progesterone receptor (PR), human epidermal growth factor receptor-2 (HER-2/neu), tumor-suppressor protein p53 and cellular proliferation protein Ki-67 in breast invasive ductal carcinoma (BIDC), respectively. Fifty-one paraffin-embedded BIDCs and their paired non-cancerous breast tissues were dissected for DNA extraction. The mtDNA copy number and mtDNA D310 sequence variations were determined by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (q-PCR) and PCR-based direct sequencing, respectively.