Friday, October 28, 2011
Hall 1-2 (San Jose Convention Center)
Breast cancer in women is the second leading cause of cancer death in the U.S. Obesity is associated with breast cancer incidence and morbidity. Adiponectin is an adipocyte-derived hormone that regulates apoptosis in breast cancer cell lines. The hypothesis for this research is that the presence of adiponectin receptors can mediate an increase in apoptotic events. The focus of this research is to investigate the role of adiponectin in mammary tissue to understand its influence on normal mammary gland development. To accomplish this, expression of adiponectin receptors in lactating C57BL/6 mice mammary tissue was evaluated through Westerns blots. Our results indicate the positive expression of adiponectin receptor 1 and beta actin control in mammary samples incubated for 24, 48, 96 hours. Detection of adiponectin receptors in the mammary gland is an important first step in defining a role for adiponectin in normal mammary epithelia and in breast cancer formation.