MCF-7 – Human Breast Cancer Cell Line

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MCF-7 is a human breast cancer cell line that i will use in my Cancer Research. I am going to share some knowledge about this breast cancer cell line. I’m so sorry for not updating the Cytogenetics and Cancer Research blog for a week time. I just came back from joining a camp. I will continue my lab work start from tomorrow. Let us explore about MCF-7 now!

MCF-7 cell line was first derived from a pleural effusion of a post menopausal 69 years patient with metastatic breast cancer in 1970 (Rebecca et al., 2003). The MCF-7 cell line is the most widely used in cancer research and best characterized of all the human breast cancer cell lines (Dino et al., 2007).

mcf 7 300x178 MCF 7 Human Breast Cancer Cell Line

MCF-7 cell line is useful as an investigative tool in laboratories worldwide in cancer research. It possesses the abilities to undergo DNA fragmentation. It also has differential sensitivities to estrogens and anti-estrogens, differential expression of estrogens receptor (ER), ER mRNA, and progesterone receptor, and differences in tumorigenicity and proliferation rates (Matthew et al., 2003). MCF-7 cells is the first hormone-responsive breast cancer cell line (Amanda et al., 2003).

The characteristics of MCF-7 cells like the estradiol-dependence for growth and low metastatic potential has led to the assumption that they represent an early epithelial adenocarcinoma of breast (John et al., 1995). MCF-7 cells are perfect model to study the pathway of malignant progression as they can be subjected to appropriate endocrinologic and physiologic selective pressures for the derivation of variants with more progressed phenotypes (Hans et al., 2007).

The epithelial breast cancer derived MCF-7 cell line is one of the most frequently used model systems for clinical studies. The researchers used it for the studies of breast cancer treatment. The clinical studies have shown that therapeutic agents preventing the synthesis and activity of estrogens are essential in the breast cancer treatment. The addition of extradiol which is one of the fractions of estrogen to the medium of MCF-7 cells induces a proliferative response (Irene et al., 2003).

There are apoptotic responses of MCF-7 cells to the apoptosis-inducing agents like tumor necrosis factor and anti-Fas antibody. The MCF-7 cells still remains as an excellent in vitro model for studying the mechanisms of chemoresistance because of its susceptibility to apoptosis (Richard et al., 2003).

Sources:

1. Rebecca S., Matthew B., Amanda P., Christopher W. & Barbara B. Apoptosis, Chemoresistance, and Breast Cancer: Insights from the MCF-7 Cell Model System. Exp Biol Med (Maywood) 228(9), 995-1003 (2003).

2. John J. P., Jiang S. Y., Michael F. & Jordan V. C. An Estrogen-Independent MCF-7 Breast Cancer Cell Line Which Contains a Novel 80-Kilodalton