The p53 is a tumor suppressor protein that plays an essential role in controlling the cell cycle. In addition, vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) is one of the most strong and specific angiogenic factors. The main objective of this study was to evaluate the impact of p53 and VEGF-C gene expression in the neoplastic and normal mammary glands of canines as an animal model. Eleven benign and malignant and five normal specimens were collected. After RNA extraction and cDNA synthesis, relative quantification of p53 and VEGF-C genes was accomplished by real-time quantitative PCR (RT-qPCR), in which β-actin was used as a reference gene. The relative mRNA expression of the p53 and VEGF-C genes was analyzed by GLM procedure of SAS software v9.2. The results indicated that the VEGF-C and p53 mRNA expression in neoplastic specimens was over-and down-expressed, respectively, compared with normal specimens. The p53 mRNA expression was significantly negatively associated with VEGF-C (~4 fold) in neoplastic specimens (P <0.01). These findings emphasized that simultaneous evaluation of p53 and VEGF-C expression can be used as tumor biomarkers for the early diagnosis of malignancy in canines. Furthermore, RT-qPCR is a rapid and sensitive method for monitoring and investigating suspicious canines at the early stage of malignancy and may provide an alternative explanation for deregulated p53 signaling in breast cancer.

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