The Investigation of the Effects of Tamoxifen and Vitamin D Combination on the Expression of P53, Bcl-2 and Bax and Cell Cycle in Mcf-7 Cell Line

Abstract

Breast cancer is the leading type of cancer in women. The majority of cells in the diagnosis of breast cancer are estrogen receptor alpha (ER α) positive and the growth of these tumors is due to estrogen. Tamoxifen is used as a supportive treatment method in breast cancer patients. Vitamin D is a group of sterols with hormone-like functions. Vitamin D is known to have anti-proliferative effect and is known to induce cell arrest and apoptosis in the G0/G1 phase in the cell cycle. This study aims to investigate the potential anti-carcinogenic effect of different concentrations of Tamoxifen and vitamin D, which are thought to have anti-proliferative effect on breast cancer cell line. In our study, combination of different concentrations of Tamoxifen and vitamin D was evaluated. As a result of the data obtained, cell cycle was studied in FACS ARIA III device. In addition, the expression of p53, BcL-2 and Bax proteins was examined in qRT PCR. In our study, low concentrations of Tamoxifen and vitamin D increased proliferation in cancer cells. An effective concentration was found for Tamoxifen. Vitamin D alone did not reduce cell proliferation but decreased cell proliferation with combination. As a result, it was found that therapies using these two agents separately decreased the proliferation of cancer cells and induced cell arrest in the G0/G1 phase in the cell cycle and changed the expressions of p53, BcL-2 and Bax proteins.

Keywords

• breast cancer
• tamoxifen
• vitamin D