Qin Jian, Liu Min, Ding Qianshan, Ji Xiang, Hao Yarong, Wu Xiaomin, Xiong Jie
Central Laboratory, Renmin Hospital, Wuhan University, Wuhan, 430060, Hubei, People's Republic of China.
Mol Cell Biochem. 2014 Oct;395(1-2):99-107. doi: 10.1007/s11010-014-2115-2. Epub 2014 Jun 17.
Epidemiology researches indicated that gastric cancer is a male-predominant disease; both expression level of estrogen and expression pattern of estrogen receptors (ERs) influence its carcinogenesis. But the direct effect of estrogen on gastric cancer cells is still unclear. This study aimed to explore the direct effect of β-estradiol (E2) on gastric cancer cells. SGC7901 and BGC823 were treated with a serial of concentrations of E2. The survival rates of both the cell lines were significantly reduced, and the reduction of viability was due to apoptosis triggered by E2 treatment. Caspase 3 was activated in response to the increasing E2 concentration in both SGC7901 and BGC823. Cleaved Caspase 3 fragments were detected, and the expression levels of Bcl-2 and Bcl-xL were reduced. Apoptosis was further confirmed by flow cytometry. The expression level of PEG10, an androgen receptor target gene, was reduced during E2 treatment. Both ERα and ERβ were expressed in these cell lines, and the result of bioinformatics analysis of gastric cancer from GEO datasets indicated that the expression levels of both ERα and ERβ were significantly higher in noncancerous gastric tissues than in gastric cancer tissues. Our research indicated that estrogen can reduce cell viability and promote apoptosis in gastric cancer cells directly; ERs expression level is associated with gastric cancer. Our research will help to understand the mechanism of gender disparity in gastric cancer.
流行病学研究表明，胃癌是一种男性主导的疾病；雌激素的表达水平和雌激素受体（ERs）的表达模式均影响其致癌过程。但雌激素对胃癌细胞的直接作用仍不清楚。本研究旨在探讨β-雌二醇（E2）对胃癌细胞的直接作用。用一系列浓度的E2处理SGC7901和BGC823细胞系。两种细胞系的存活率均显著降低，活力的降低是由于E2处理引发的细胞凋亡所致。在SGC7901和BGC823细胞系中，随着E2浓度的增加，半胱天冬酶3被激活。检测到裂解的半胱天冬酶3片段，并且Bcl-2和Bcl-xL的表达水平降低。通过流式细胞术进一步证实了细胞凋亡。在E2处理期间，雄激素受体靶基因PEG10的表达水平降低。这些细胞系中均表达ERα和ERβ，来自GEO数据集的胃癌生物信息学分析结果表明，非癌性胃组织中ERα和ERβ的表达水平均显著高于胃癌组织。我们的研究表明，雌激素可直接降低胃癌细胞的活力并促进其凋亡；ERs的表达水平与胃癌有关。我们的研究将有助于理解胃癌中性别差异的机制。
