Preferential selection of androgen polymorphs within and between the cancer cell lines MDA-MB-468, MCF-7, and SKBR3

  • Author(s) / Creator(s)
  • Research was completed to elucidate whether a single X chromosome was preferentially inactivated within cancer cell lines that came from female donors. This was approached with a mind towards using non-essential X-linked proteins as targets for pointed cancer therapy. Research used reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction and custom oligonucleotide primers designed to include the poly-Q region of androgen receptor mRNA. Agarose gel electrophoresis (1%) and polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (6.5%) with ethidium bromide allowed visualization of all mRNA polymorphs produced within a population of approximately 106 cells for each replicate. It was found that up to five androgen receptor polymorphs were expressed within a given population of cancer cells from the cell lines SKBR3, MCF-7, and MDA-MB-468. Since many polymorphs are expressed it is reasonable to conclude that there is not only one X chromosome expressed throughout an entire cell culture. This finding conforms to the known mutator phenotype associated with cancer cells. It became apparent that certain polymorphic variants were not only selected for within the same cell line, but also between different breast cancer cell lines. Certain polymorphs being conserved suggests there is a potential selective pressure that causes the production of specific androgen receptor polymorphs. Due to this discovery, future research might be completed regarding assessment of androgen receptor polymorphs in primary tissue samples. Completed research also supports research on the use of androgen ablation therapy in the treatment of breast cancer.

  • Date created
    2015-07-04
  • Subjects / Keywords
  • Type of Item
    Research Material
  • DOI
    https://doi.org/10.7939/r3-g9by-gf05
  • License
    Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International