Effect of 17β-estradiol on MCA-38 cell proliferation and apoptosis and expression of ERα and ERβ

Objective To investigate the effects of 17β-estradiol(E2) on MCA-38 cell line proliferation and apoptosis and analyze the expression of ERα and ERβ.Methods MCA-38 cell line were divided into 5 E2 treated groups(0.01 nmol/L,0.1 nmol/L,1 nmol/L,10 nmol/L and 100 nmol/L for 24 h respectively) and one control group.The expression of ERα,ERβ and Caspase-3 proteins were detected by Western blot,and the cell proliferation was assessed by MTT assay.Results Western blot showed that both ERα and ERβ were expressed in MCA38 cell line with ERβ dominated.After incubation with different concentrations of E2 for 24 hours,compared with the control group,the expression of ERα protein was upregulated while the ERβ was decreased.0.01 nmol/L,0.1 nmol/L and 1 nmol/L of E2 elevated the expression of ERα by 4.7%,5.5% and 5.9%(P0.05),and 0.1 nmol/L,1 nmol/L of E2 lowered the expression of ERβ by 10.2% and 3.9%(P0.05).Physiological doses of E2(0.01 nmol/L,0.1 nmol/L,1 nmol/L,10 nmol/L) significantly promoted MCA-38 cell proliferation,and the number of the tumor cells were increased by 20.47%,25.29%,37.59% and 30.95%(P0.05).0.1 nmol/L, 1 nmol/L of E2 were decreased caspase-3 protein by 20.2% and 32.9%(P0.05).Conclusion E2 affected the cell proliferation and apoptosis of MCA-38 cell line.The tumor cell proliferation was associated with the increased expression of ERα,and the change of apoptosis was closely related with the expression of ERβ.