title: [Study on estrogenic effect of genistein and apigenin in vitro].
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To detect the estrogenic activity of genistein and apigenin with ER-positive cell line MCF-7 human breast cancer cells.
  
  
  METHODS
  MTT method was adopted to study the impact of genistein and apigenin on MCF-7 proliferation in vitro. Real-time RT-PCR method was used to detect their impact on ERalpha, ERbeta, PR and PS2 mRNA expression levels.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Genistein and apigenin promoted the proliferation of MCF-7. Genistein 1 x 10(-10) mol x L(-1) group showed a significant increase in the expression of ERa mRNA levels or a 17. 76 times more than the control group and a 1.75 times more than the E2 group. Apigenin notably promoted the PR mRNA expression or a 4. 57 times more than the control group and a 1.11 times more than the E2 group. Both of them had different effect in promoting ERalpha, ERbeta, PR or PS2 mRNA.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Both genistein and apigenin have a strong estrogen-like effect. Although they have different effect in promoting estrogenic response genes (such as ERa, ERbeta, PR and PS2 mRNA), genistein shows a stronger activity than apigenin. It also suggests that the signaling pathways of phytoestrogens showing estrogen-like effect are not completely identical with estrogen pathways. The B-cycle position of flavonoids is one of the key sites to estrogen-like activity, and isoflavones (cycle B on site 3) show stronger estrogen-like activity than flavones (B-cycle lies in site 2).
authors.affiliation: School of Life Science and Engineering, Lanzhou University of Technology, Lanzhou 730050, China. darqing_zhu@yahoo.com.cn
authors.forename: Ruiqing
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.forename: Baofeng
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Ge
authors.forename: Bin
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: Keming
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Yimin
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wen
authors.forename: Jian
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.forename: Guiqiu
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Han
authors.forename: Guozheng
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Cheng
authors.forename: Yuankun
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhai
mesh_terms: D047310:Apigenin / Q000494:pharmacology*; D049109:Cell Proliferation / Q000187:drug effects; D047628:Estrogen Receptor alpha / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D047629:Estrogen Receptor beta / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D005260:Female; D015870:Gene Expression / Q000187:drug effects; D019833:Genistein / Q000494:pharmacology*; D006801:Humans; D061986:MCF-7 Cells; D048789:Phytoestrogens / Q000494:pharmacology*; D053766:Presenilin-2 / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D047628:Estrogen Receptor alpha; D047629:Estrogen Receptor beta; C508861:PSEN2 protein, human; D048789:Phytoestrogens; D053766:Presenilin-2; D047310:Apigenin; D019833:Genistein