Lee C S, Hall R E, Alexander I E, Koga M, Shine J, Sutherland R L
Garvan Institute of Medical Research, St. Vincent's Hospital, Sydney, N.S.W., Australia.
Growth Factors. 1990;3(2):97-103. doi: 10.3109/08977199009108272.
Epidermal growth factor receptors (EGF-R) are present in a number of human breast cancer cell lines and tumor biopsies. Furthermore, it has been suggested that EGF-R levels are higher in estrogen receptor negative (ER-) than in ER+ human breast tumors and that EGF-R status may be a prognostic indicator in breast cancer. The present study was undertaken to establish whether there is a quantitative relationship between EGF-R and ER mRNA concentrations in a series of 10 well-characterized human breast cancer cell lines. All cell lines expressed detectable quantities of EGF-R mRNA by Northern analysis but the relative abundance of EGF-R mRNA varied more than 50-fold. Two transcripts corresponding to the 10.5- and 5.8-kb mRNAs described in other cell types were present but in different relative proportions in different cell lines. When these lines were divided into an ER+ and an ER- group based on their ability to bind estradiol, ER- cell lines were shown to express significantly higher concentrations of EGF-R mRNA than did ER+ cell lines (p less than 0.005). Furthermore, linear-regression analysis revealed a significant inverse relationship between ER and EGF-R mRNA concentrations both within the group of 10 human breast cancer cell lines as a whole (r = 0.66) and within the 6 functionally ER + lines (r = 0.77). This demonstration of a significant (p less than 0.005) inverse relationship between the concentrations of ER and EGF-R mRNAs in ER + cell lines raises the possibility of reciprocal regulation of the expression of these genes in human breast cancer.
表皮生长因子受体（EGF-R）存在于多种人类乳腺癌细胞系和肿瘤活检组织中。此外，有人提出，雌激素受体阴性（ER-）的人类乳腺肿瘤中EGF-R水平高于ER+的肿瘤，并且EGF-R状态可能是乳腺癌的一个预后指标。本研究旨在确定在一系列10个特征明确的人类乳腺癌细胞系中，EGF-R与ER mRNA浓度之间是否存在定量关系。通过Northern分析，所有细胞系均表达可检测量的EGF-R mRNA，但EGF-R mRNA的相对丰度变化超过50倍。存在与其他细胞类型中描述的10.5 kb和5.8 kb mRNA相对应的两种转录本，但在不同细胞系中的相对比例不同。当根据这些细胞系结合雌二醇的能力将其分为ER+组和ER-组时，发现ER-细胞系表达的EGF-R mRNA浓度明显高于ER+细胞系（p<0.005）。此外，线性回归分析显示，在整个10个人类乳腺癌细胞系组中（r = 0.66）以及在6个功能上为ER+的细胞系中（r = 0.77），ER和EGF-R mRNA浓度之间均存在显著的负相关关系。ER+细胞系中ER和EGF-R mRNA浓度之间存在显著（p<0.005）负相关关系，这表明在人类乳腺癌中这些基因的表达可能存在相互调节的可能性。
