| Budget Amount *help |
¥3,700,000 (Direct Cost: ¥3,700,000)
Fiscal Year 2002: ¥1,800,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,800,000)
Fiscal Year 2001: ¥1,900,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,900,000)
|
|---|
| Research Abstract |
As many structurally diverse chemicals have been reported to function as estrogens, evaluations for estrogenicity of compounds are of widespread concern. We identified WISP-2 (Wnt-1 inducible signaling pathway protein 2) as a novel estrogen-inducible gene in the MCF-7 human breast cancer cell lines. Progesterone, dexamethasone, tri-iodothyronine, and 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin did not regulate the expression of WISP-2, indicating that its induction is highly specific for hormones that interact with the estrogen receptor. Western blot analysis detected WISP-2 protein induced by 17α-estradiol(E2), not only in the cell lysates but also in the culture supernatant of exposed cells, indicating that WISP-2 was a secreted protein. The induction of WISP-2 protein by E2 in the culture supernatant was dose-dependent with estimated EC_<50> levels between 10 and 100 pM. These results demonstrated the capacity to screen environmental compounds for estrogenicity via WISP-2 induction.
|
