Progesterone, glucocorticoid and estradiol receptors in MCF-7 cells bind to chromatin

MCF-7 cells contain progesterone, estradiol and glucocorticoid receptors. Following addition of these hormones to the growth medium of the cells, hormone-receptor complexes were found to sediment with chromatin fragments produced by trace digestion with micrococcal nuclease. The binding in all cases could be competed by excess unlabeled hormone. In each case the fragments with which the hormone-receptor complexes were associated tended to be smaller than the bulk chromatin fragments, indicating a greater sensitivity of those chromatin regions to the nuclease. The mononucleosomes released by more extensive digestion with micrococcal nuclease contained different amounts of each of the three hormone-receptor complexes. Progesterone could usually be detected on mononucleosomes only after very brief sedimentation analyses, whereas glucocorticoid- and estradiol-labeled mononucleosomes were stable during long centrifugations. Comparison of glucocorticoid- and estradiol-labeled mononucleosomes indicated that their sedimentation rates differed from one another and from bulk nucleosomes. Estradiol nucleosomes from MCF-7 cells and rat uterus (Senior and Frankel, 1978) sediment significantly faster than bulk nucleosomes, while glucocorticoid nucleosomes from MCF-7 cells and rat hepatoma cells sediment with, or even fractionally slower than, bulk nucleosomes.