This study aimed to evaluate the biological and clinical significance of apelin-36 in breast cancer and to compare apelin-36 expression and apoptotic index in both breast tissue and metastatic lymph nodes in patients with invasive breast carcinoma. In this study, both tumor tissue and metastatic lymph nodes of the same patient were collected from 60 cases of invasive breast carcinoma patients (IDC, ILC) and 20 cases of normal breast tissue with no tumor from mammoplasty were used as the control group. The expression of apelin was examined with immunohistochemically, and the apoptotic index was examined with TUNEL methods. According to Kruskal-Wallis analysis, there was a significant difference between IDC and the control group when the apelin expression was compared between the breast tissues (p = 0.001). There were significant differences between the three groups when comparing relationships with apoptotic index (p < 0.001). According to the Mann-Whitney U test, both tumor size and expression of apelin in lymph nodes in ILCs were significantly higher than IDCs. (p = 0.026, p = 0.024, respectively). According to correlation analysis, there was a good correlation between the expression of apelin in breast tissue and apelin expression in lymph nodes (p = 0.000). It is also found a similar relationship in terms of the apoptotic index (p = 0.000). In addition, the negative correlation was found between apelin expression and the apoptotic index in breast tissues (p = 0.003). Based on these results, apelin-36 can be used as a marker for determining the metastasis potential in invasive breast cancer.

中文翻译：

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细胞凋亡和apelin对浸润性乳腺癌淋巴结转移的影响。

本研究旨在评估apelin-36在乳腺癌中的生物学和临床意义，并比较浸润性乳腺癌患者乳腺组织和转移淋巴结中apelin-36的表达和凋亡指数。本研究从60例浸润性乳腺癌患者（IDC，ILC）中收集同一患者的肿瘤组织和转移淋巴结，并以20例乳房成形术无肿瘤的正常乳腺组织作为对照组。免疫组化检测apelin的表达，TUNEL法检测凋亡指数。根据 Kruskal-Wallis 分析，当比较乳腺组织之间的 apelin 表达时，IDC 与对照组之间存在显着差异（p = 0.001）。比较与凋亡指数的关系时，三组之间存在显着差异（p < 0.001）。根据 Mann-Whitney U 检验，ILC 的肿瘤大小和淋巴结中 apelin 的表达均显着高于 IDC。（分别为 p = 0.026、p = 0.024）。根据相关性分析，乳腺组织中apelin的表达与淋巴结中apelin的表达存在良好的相关性（p=0.000）。在细胞凋亡指数方面也发现了类似的关系 (p = 0.000)。此外，在乳腺组织中发现apelin表达与凋亡指数之间呈负相关（p = 0.003）。基于这些结果，apelin-36 可以作为确定浸润性乳腺癌转移潜力的标志物。