Specific stimulation by estradiol of tissue-type plasminogen activator production in 7,12-dimethylbenz[a]anthracene-induced rat mammary tumor cells.

The hormonal regulation of two plasminogen activators, tissue-type plasminogen activator (t-PA) and urokinase (u-PA), was studied both in 7,12-dimethylbenz[a]anthracene (DMBA)-induced rat mammary carcinoma and in DMBA-induced rat mammary dysplasia. t-PA activity in DMBA-mammary carcinoma was decreased markedly by oophorectomy and recovered upon estradiol administration to reach the maximum level at 12 hr. In contrast to its effect on DMBA-mammary carcinoma, estradiol had no effect on t-PA activity in DMBA-mammary dysplasia. Furthermore, DMBA-mammary carcinoma cells in primary culture displayed similar estrogen-dependency in production of t-PA, while t-PA production in DMBA-mammary dysplasia cells was not under the control of estradiol in vitro. Moreover, estrogen-stimulated production of u-PA activity was not observed in DMBA-mammary carcinoma cells or DMBA-mammary dysplasia cells both in vivo and in vitro. Taken together, these results suggest that estrogen stimulates the production of t-PA but not u-PA and that this estrogen dependency of t-PA is limited to malignant DMBA-mammary tumor cells.