Breast cancer patients with bone metastases are characterised by increased levels of nonisomerised type I collagen fragments

摘要

BackgroundFragments of collagen type I containing the epitope AHDGGR (CTX) are generated during bone resorption. The aspartyl-glycine (DG) site within CTX is synthesised in the L-aspartyl peptide (αL) form, but converts to the age-modified forms L-isoaspartyl peptide (βL) and D-aspartyl peptide (αD) over time. The purpose of the present study was to test the ability of the various CTX forms to identify breast cancer patients with bone metastases and to investigate whether such patients had an altered CTX excretion pattern.