Altered gene expression in drug-resistant human breast cancer cells

It is increasingly recognized that drug-resistant cells undergo transitions not directly linked to "classical" drug resistance. We examined the expression of growth factors, growth factor receptors, and the estrogen receptor in 17 drug-resistant and 2 revertant human breast cancer sublines to provide an understanding of the phenotypic changes that occur and how these changes could affect the biology of the cell. These sublines were derived from five parental human breast cancer cell lines (MCF-7, ZR75B, T47D, MDA-MB-231, and MDA-MB-453). The expression of estrogen receptor was absent or decreased in 6 of the 15 resistant MCF-7, ZR75B, and T47D sublines. Increases of as much as 49-fold compared to parental levels were observed in transforming growth factor alpha, epidermal growth factor receptor, c-erbB2, and/or c-erbB3 mRNA expression in 14 of the 17 resistant sublines. Altered amphiregulin and insulin-like growth factor-I receptor expression was observed in nine and four drug-resistant sublines, respectively. No major alterations were observed in epidermal growth factor and c-erbB4 expression. Few alterations were observed in two sublines derived from estrogen receptor-negative cells. Higher levels of phosphotyrosine residues were detected in a subset of the resistant sublines, indicating an increased tyrosine kinase activity in these cells. Interestingly, decreased growth rates were observed in all of the sublines, despite up-regulated growth factor-related gene expression. Taken together, these data suggest that loss of estrogen receptor, increased expression of growth factor pathway genes, and decreased growth rate regularly occur in drug-resistant breast cancer cells. Although we do not know whether the altered expression of growth factor pathway genes is linked as a cause or a consequence of the reduced growth rate, it is well established that decreased growth rate confers drug resistance. These phenotypic changes in drug-resistant human breast cancer cells could serve to initiate, support, or extend the drug resistance.