title: Suppression by L-methionine of cell cycle progression in LNCaP and MCF-7 cells but not benign cells.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Methionine inhibits proliferation of breast and prostate cancer cells. This study aimed to determine cell cycle effects of methionine and selectivity for cancer cells.
  
  
  METHODS
  MCF-7 (breast), LNCaP (prostate), and LS-174 (colon) cancer cells (wild-type p53), DU-145 (prostate) and SW480 (colon) cancer cells (mutated p53), and immortalized, non-tumorigenic MCF-10A (breast), BPH-1 (prostate), and NCM-460 (colon) epithelial cells were used. Cell cycle effects were assessed by flow cytometry and cell cycle-related gene expression by microarray analysis and QRT-PCR.
  
  
  RESULTS
  L-Methionine at 5 mg/ml for 72 hours (non-apoptotic) arrested cell cycle in LNCaP, DU145, and MCF-7 cells, but not in untransformed cells, nor in LS-174 cells. LNCaP and MCF-7 cells were arrested at G(1), but DU-145 at S. Methionine up-regulated CDKIs and down-regulated CDKs.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  L-Methionine selectively inhibits proliferation of breast and prostate cancer cells, but not non-tumorigenic cells, and may thus have therapeutic benefits. p53 status appeared to determine the cell cycle stage at which methionine acts.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, University of Illinois at Chicago, College of Medicine, 840 South Wood Street, Chicago, Illinois 60612, USA. maxbenav@uic.edu
authors.forename: Maximo A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Benavides
authors.forename: Karen L
authors.initials: KL
authors.lastname: Hagen
authors.forename: Wenfeng
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Fang
authors.forename: Pan
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Du
authors.forename: Simon
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.forename: Mary P
authors.initials: MP
authors.lastname: Moyer
authors.forename: Wancai
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: Kirby I
authors.initials: KI
authors.lastname: Bland
authors.forename: William E
authors.initials: WE
authors.lastname: Grizzle
authors.forename: Maarten C
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Bosland
mesh_terms: D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000473:pathology; D002453:Cell Cycle / Q000187:drug effects; D045744:Cell Line, Tumor; D005260:Female; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008715:Methionine / Q000494:pharmacology*; D010190:Pancreatic Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000473:pathology; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D016159:Tumor Suppressor Protein p53 / Q000032:analysis
chemical_list: D016159:Tumor Suppressor Protein p53; D008715:Methionine