Fig. 5
Estrogen signaling in ovarian cancer cell lines. a Luciferase reporter assay of SKOV3 cells transfected, hormone starved for 48 h and treated for 24 h with 1 nM E2 and or 100 nM 4OHT. ERE-luciferase activity was normalized for transfection efficiency to the betagal control signal. Significant difference from DMSO control denoted by * (p < 0.05). b qPCR analysis of Pgr mRNA levels in SKOV3 as described in a. c Western blot analysis of ERα and PR levels in SKOV3 cells as described in (d) Western blot analysis of ERα and PR status of a panel of HGSC cell lines with positive control MCF7 cells and the commonly used undifferentiated OVCA cell line SKOV3. OVSAHO, OVKATE and SKOV3 reveal low ERα expression, while none of the cell lines expressed detectable PR expression compared to MCF7. e-g qPCR analysis of Esr1, Pgr and Esr2 mRNA levels in HGSC cell lines. h Relative growth of OVSAHO cells treated with 1 nM E2 or 100 nM SERMs for 7 days. Cells were grown as described in Fig. 3a except media was replenished after 72 h. Significant difference from untreated and DMSO treated cells represented by “a” (p < 0.01) and significant difference from SERM treated cells represented by “b” (p < 0.05) i) qPCR analysis of Pgr induction in response to E2 and 4OHT treatment in OVSAHO cells