Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is a heterogeneous group of breast cancer and is characterized by aggressiveness and poor prognosis. MicroRNA represents a new class of biomarkers, and accumulating evidence indicates that microRNAs contribute to tumorigenesis and cancer metastasis. It has been described that miR-210 is highly expressed in TNBC, and its overexpression had been linked to poor prognosis. In a previous work, we showed that in TNBC miR-210 is expressed in tumor cells and also in the tumor microenvironment (TME), particularly in inflammatory CD45-LCA positive cells. However, the exact identity of these cells remained unknown. In this study, we performed in situ hybridization and immunohistochemistry using validated antibodies for the different specific immune cell markers on adjacent sections of 23 TNBC infiltrated with immune cells. We found that miR-210 expressing cells in the TME were stained positive with CD79a, a B-cell lineage marker. These tumor-infiltrating cells were negative for CD20 and Ki-67 but positive for MUM1 and CD38 and also expressed immunoglobulins, indicating that they are immunoglobulin-producing plasma cells (PCs). To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study demonstrating miR-210 expression in tumor-infiltrating PCs.
Keywords: TNBC; in situ hybridization; microRNAs; plasma cells; tumor microenvironment.