Proteomic analysis of the differential effects of estrogens on human breast cancer cells

The incidence of a number of endocrine-related diseases, such as impaired male, reproductive capacity, testicular cancer and breast cancer is increasing. The presence of estrogen-like compounds in the environment as possible causative agents gives rise to concern for human health. If present at sufficient levels, such compounds may modulate the expression of estrogen-responsive genes in target tissues via the estrogen receptor. A greater understanding of their effects on the proteome of responsive tissues may reveal mechanisms by which such compounds exert their effects. The aim of this work is to determine the effects of various estrogenic chemicals by examining the profile of expressed proteins in the human breast cancer cell line, MCF-7. If successful, this work could reveal how the cell proteome responds to different estrogenic compounds both singly and as mixtures and to fully characterise the concentration-effect curve for the compounds. The work presented here concentrates on the effects of the natural ligand for the estrogen receptor, 17β-estradiol, which occurs at serum levels of up to 200 pM in human.