Antiestrogen, trans-tamoxifen modulation of human breast cancer cell growth

Abstract

To gain further insight into how antiestrogens modulate cell function, the effects of antiestrogen on cell proliferation were studied in human breast cancer cells. We examined the effects of trans-tamoxifen on the proliferation of three human breast cancer cell lines that differed in their estrogen receptor contents. Trans-tamoxifen (1 μM) markedly inhibited the estrogen stimulated proliferation of MCF-7 human breast cancer cells that contained high levels of estrogen receptor (1.15±0.03 pmole/mg protein) over that of control. In T47D cells that contained low levels of estrogen receptor (0.23±0.05 pmole/mg protein), trans-tamoxifen (1 μM) showed minimal inhibition of estrogen stimulated cell proliferation over that of control. MDA-MB-231 cells, that contained no detectable levels of estrogen receptors, had their growth unaffected by trans-tamoxifen treatment. These results showed their sensitivity to growth inhibition by antiestrogen correlated well with their estrogen receptor content. Also we examined the effect of antiestrogen on cellular progestrone receptor level as well as plasminogen activator activity in MCF-7 cells. Trans-tamoxifen (1 μM) showed maximal inhibition of estrogen stimulated progestrone receptor level as well as plasminogen activator activity in MCF-7 cells that were stimulated by estrogen. It is not clear whether these inhibitions of progestrone receptor and plasminogen activator activity by estrogen are related to the antiestrogen inhibition of cell proliferation of MCF-7 cells. From the results of this study, it is clearly demonstrated that trans-tamoxifen is an antiestrogen in MCF-7 human breast cancer cells. Our data suggest that the biological effectiveness of trans-tamoxifen appear to result from its affinity of interaction with the estrogen receptor.