Molecular Targeted Therapy For Breast Cancer Chemotherapy Sensitizing Effect

Objective: To study the possibility of using TZDs as the sensitizer of epirubicin on breast cancer's therapy, proliferation, apoptosis, migration and the BCL-2 expression level were investigated in breast cancer cells treated with epirubicin and troglitazone. Methods: Two estrogen receptor negative breast cancer cell lines MDA-MB-435S and MDA-MB-231 cells and one estrogen receptor positive breast cancer cell line MCF-7 cells were used in the experiments. Cell proliferation, apoptosis and migration were determined by MTT, flow cytometry and wound healing assay respectively. The expression level of BCL-2 of cells was assessed by Western blot analysis. Results: The effects of epirubicin on inducing apoptosis and inhibiting cell proliferation were enhanced by cotreatment with troglitazone in the range of 4 μmol/L to 24 μmol/L and 4 μmol/L to 16 μmol/L for estrogen receptor negative and positive breast cancer cell lines respectively.