Nasrin Karimi - Master of Sciences, Department of Biology, Ashkezar Branch, Islamic Azad University, Ashkezar,Iran
Mana Oloomi - Associate Professor, Department of Molecular Biology, Pasteur Institute of Iran, Tehran-Iran
Mahmood Dehgani Ashkezary - Associate Professor ,Department of Biology, Ashkezar Branch, Islamic Azad University, Ashkezar,Iran
Seyed Mahdi Kalantar - Professor in Molecular Genetics, Yazd Research and Clinical Center for Infertility, Yazd-Iran

Cytokeratin19 (CK19) is a part of the cytoskeleton which abundantly expressed in the majority of epithelial tumor cells and is used as a tumor marker in cancer. Ki67 is a cellular proliferation marker as well as a cancer antigen that is found in growing and dividing cells. Thischaracteristic makes Ki67 a good tumor marker. Methods: In the present study, 25 patients and 25 healthy women as control were evaluated. Total RNA was extracted from blood. RT-PCR technique was applied to the extracted RNA, using specific primers. RT-PCR assay was used for detection of CK19 tumor marker and Glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH) as an internal control.Results: In this study, CK19 was detected in 32% of breast cancer patients but CK19 was not positive in the healthy controls. The CK19 gene expression in blood was assessed and compared with Ki67 gene expression; pathologic characteristic of patients. The association of the CK19 and Ki67 gene expression was statistically significant with P value =0.000. Conclusion: It was shown that CK19 gene expression is potentially related to the Ki67 expression and it could be involved in the pathogenesis of breast cancer.

Ki67, RT-PCR, CK19