Gene Alterations of Ovarian Cancer Cells Expressing Estrogen Receptors by Estrogen and Bisphenol A Using Microarray Analysis

Since endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) may interfere with the endocrine system(s) of our body and have an estrogenicity, we evaluated the effect(s) of bisphenol A (BPA) on the transcriptional levels of altered genes in estrogen receptor (ER)-positive BG-1 ovarian cancer cells by microarray and real-time polymerase-chain reaction. In this study, treatment with 17β-estradiol (E(2)) or BPA increased mRNA levels of E(2)-responsive genes related to apoptosis, cancer and cell cycle, signal transduction and nucleic acid binding etc. In parallel with their microarray data, the mRNA levels of some altered genes including RAB31_MEMBER RAS ONCOGENE FAMILY (U59877), CYCLIN D1 (X59798), CYCLIN-DEPENDENT KINASE 4 (U37022), IGF-BINDING PROTEIN 4 (U20982), and ANTI-MULLERIAN HORMONE (NM_000479) were significantly induced by E(2) or BPA in this cell model. These results indicate that BPA in parallel with E(2) induced the transcriptional levels of E(2)-responsive genes in an estrogen receptor (ER)-positive BG-1 cells. In conclusion, these microarray and real-time polymerase-chain reaction results indicate that BPA, a potential weak estrogen, may have estrogenic effect by regulating E(2)-responsive genes in ER-positive BG-1 cells and BG-1 cells would be the best in vitro model to detect these estrogenic EDCs.