MCF-7 CELL LINE

MCF-7 is a breast cancer cell line was isolated in 1970 from a 69-year-old Caucasian woman.

In the first of two mastectomies she received the removed tissue was benign, but five years later at her second operation a malignant adenocarcinoma was found. Over the next three years the woman was treated for local recurrences by radiotherapy and hormonotherapy. During the removal of chest wall nodules, a pleural effusion was discovered, from which the MCF-7 cell line was derived in 1970. This cell line retained several characteristics of differentiated mammary epithelium including the ability to process estradiol via cytoplasmic estrogen receptors and the capability of forming domes. This cell line expresses the oncogene Wnt7B.

Originally the karyotype of MCF-7 cells was described of possessing 85 chromosomes around 220 passages later a reduction to 69 had occurred. More recently studies have shown karyotype discrepancies between the MCF-7 cell line from the Michigan Cancer Foundation and the MCF-7 cell line supplied by ATCC (Graham et al. 1986). Comparing the cell lines from the two sources studies concluded that the MCF-7 cells from ATCC could not have been derived from the same individual as the original MCF-7 cell line (Graham et al. 1986).

The primary reference source for the MCF-7 cell line appeared in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute (JNCI) with the citation:

Soule, H. D., Vazquez, J., Long, A., Albert & Brennan, M. (1973). A human cell line from a pleural effusion derived from a breast carcinoma. J. Natl. Cancer Inst. 51, 1409-1413.

Tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF alpha) inhibits the growth of MCF-7 breast cancer cells. Treatment with anti-estrogens can modulate the secretion of insulin-like growth factor binding protein's.

PIK3CA helical mutations were identified in MCF-7, but with low AKT activation.