Upregulating Estrogen Receptor in MCF-7s - (Aug/04/2010 )

Hello friends:

Is there a cheap alternative way of upregulating estrogen receptor in MCF-7 cells besides using Tamoxifen? I am trying to perform some protein expression studies but need a more cost-effective stimulation for that drug. Thanks.

SN

what estrogen receptor isoform are you trying to upregulate? i read a paper recently that saw upregulation of ERa-36 in MCF 7 and T47D cells upon stimulation with estradiol and tamoxifen, with downregulation of the full-length ERa-66 (Shi et al, 2010, American Journal of Pathology). you could try estradiol, i'm not sure how its cost compares to tamoxifen. will transiently transfecting the cells with the ER you want to upregulate work for your experiment? that would probably be cheaper than buying tamoxifen.

Thanks for the suggestion. I'll first try to get a hold of that paper and see what I can find there. I may end up trying estradiol to upregulate ER. We are trying to upregulate the alpha isoform.

SN

Any estrogen like molecule will do it, even phenol red in the culture medium is enough to see internalisation of the estrogen receptor.