Potential values of formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded tissues for intratumoral microbiome analysis in breast cancer
Jing Chang,
Xiang Li,
Qingxin Xia,
Shumin Yang,
He Zhang,
Hui Yang
Affiliations
Jing Chang
School of Life Sciences, Northwestern Polytechnical University, 127th Youyi Rd., Xi'an 710072, Shaanxi, China; Medical Service Office, Affiliated Cancer Hospital of Zhengzhou University, 127th Dongming Rd., Zhengzhou 450000, Henan, China
Xiang Li
School of Life Sciences, Northwestern Polytechnical University, 127th Youyi Rd., Xi'an 710072, Shaanxi, China; Center of Special Environmental Biomechanics & Biomedical Engineering, Northwestern Polytechnical University, 127th Youyi Rd., Xi'an 710072, Shaanxi, China
Qingxin Xia
Department of Pathology, Affiliated Cancer Hospital of Zhengzhou University, 127th Dongming Rd., Zhengzhou 450000, Henan, China
Shumin Yang
Medical Service Office, Affiliated Cancer Hospital of Zhengzhou University, 127th Dongming Rd., Zhengzhou 450000, Henan, China
He Zhang
Department of Pathology, Affiliated Cancer Hospital of Zhengzhou University, 127th Dongming Rd., Zhengzhou 450000, Henan, China; Corresponding author.
Hui Yang
School of Life Sciences, Northwestern Polytechnical University, 127th Youyi Rd., Xi'an 710072, Shaanxi, China; Center of Special Environmental Biomechanics & Biomedical Engineering, Northwestern Polytechnical University, 127th Youyi Rd., Xi'an 710072, Shaanxi, China; Corresponding author. School of Life Sciences, Northwestern Polytechnical University, 127th Youyi Rd., Xi'an 710072, Shaanxi, China.
Breast cancer (BC) tissues have been proved to harbor microorganisms, which could potentially contribute to oncogenesis. Formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE) tissues are the most widespread clinical samples in BC research. To verify the potential of FFPE tissues in microbiological analysis, we analyzed the microbial communities of FFPE and fresh frozen (FF) tumor samples from 30 participants diagnosed with BC deploying 16S rRNA sequencing. The operational taxonomic units (OTUs) analysis showed that 78.55% of OTUs in FFPE samples were consistent with FF samples. The composition of core bacteria did not change much, and there is also no difference in alpha diversity between FFPE and FF (without unclassified bacteria). Taxonomic variation results show that Firmicutes and Bacteroidota phyla, and their major classes, maintained the same proportion under two preservation methods. In addition, the major class Gammaproteobacteria, as well as its dominant orders Burkholderiales and Pseudomonadales all showed no significant difference in paired analysis. Moreover, the Proteobacteria and Actinobacteriota phyla showed no significant difference between FFPE and FF samples after subtracting unclassified bacteria. Therefore, premised with the intrinsic tumor heterogeneity and unclassified bacteria, there are potential values of FFPE tissues for intratumoral microbiome analysis in breast cancer.
