| Summary: | <p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>It has been postulated that inflammation caused by certain viruses might result in cancer. Recently, it was shown that childhood lymphoblastic leukemia, breast and ovarian cancers express an interferon-related signature, providing support for this notion. We have previously shown that 38% of the sporadic breast cancers contain MMTV-like <it>env </it>gene sequences. To find out if the presence and expression of MMTV-like sequences correlated with an inflammatory phenotype, we have compared the expression profile of two sublines of MCF-7 cells, one containing the MMTV-like sequences (<it>env</it>+), the other one lacking them (<it>env</it>-).</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The results indicated that there were 47 differentially expressed genes between the two sublines. Among 27 upregulated genes in the <it>env</it>+ cells there were 7 interferon-related genes, 5 TNF-connected genes and 2 TGFβ-related genes.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>These results suggest that the <it>env</it>+ cells were most likely responding to an infectious agent, and support the hypothesis that a viral infection may play a role in breast cancer pathogenesis.</p>
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