Epidermal growth factor induces cell death in the absence of overexpressed epidermal growth factor receptor and ErbB2 in various human cancer cell lines.
Epidermal growth factor (EGF) stimulates apoptosis in tumor cells depending on the expression levels of EGF receptor and Her2. We examined the protein levels in 22 different cancer cell lines and assessed the responses to EGF. EGF-induced cytotoxicity was not correlated with the levels of either EGFR or Her2. Fourteen cell lines exhibited decreased cell proliferation, whereas 293T cells did not display any noticeable changes and degraded transiently expressed EGFR following EGF treatment. EGF treatment resulted in significant tumor growth inhibition in some xenografts. Our data indicate that exogenous EGF treatment leads to growth inhibition rather than inducing tumor cell proliferation.
Choi
Jene
J
Department of Pathology, University of Ulsan College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.
Moon
Soo Young
SY
Hong
Joon Pio
JP
Song
Ji-young
JY
Oh
Kyung Taek
KT
Lee
Sang-wook
SW
D000818:Animals; D020169:Caspases / Q000378:metabolism; D016923:Cell Death / Q000187:drug effects; D045744:Cell Line, Tumor; D049109:Cell Proliferation / Q000187:drug effects; D004815:Epidermal Growth Factor / Q000494:pharmacology*; D066246:ErbB Receptors / Q000378:metabolism*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D051379:Mice; D008807:Mice, Inbred BALB C; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology; D018719:Erb-b2 Receptor Tyrosine Kinases / Q000378:metabolism*; D023041:Xenograft Model Antitumor Assays
D020169:Caspases; D004815:Epidermal Growth Factor; D066246:ErbB Receptors; D018719:Erb-b2 Receptor Tyrosine Kinases; C508053:ERBB2 protein, human