Differential expression of steroid receptors, hsp27, and pS2 in a series of drug resistant human breast tumor cell lines derived following exposure to antitumor drugs or to fractionated X-irradiation.

This study examined whether levels of estrogen receptor (ER), progesterone receptor (PR), and expression of estrogen regulated pS2 and/or heat shock protein (hsp) 27 were associated with drug resistance in a series of MCF-7 sublines expressing modest (i.e. 3- to 14-fold), yet clinically relevant, levels of resistance to vincristine (VCR). These sublines were variously derived following pulsed exposures to VCR, to fractionated X-irradiation, or to alternating drug and X-ray treatments. This selection procedure more closely reflects the clinical treatment of breast tumors than the use of continuous drug exposures. The drug-selected sublines exhibited the classical multidrug resistance phenotype (MDR) characterized by cross-resistance to vinblastine (VLB), etoposide (VP-16), and Adriamycin (ADR), overexpression of P-glycoprotein (Pgp), impaired accumulation of [3H]-VCR and of Rhodamine-123 (Rh 123), and altered activities of certain drug detoxification enzymes. This classic MDR phenotype was associated with a lack of mitogenic response to estrogen or antiestrogen, related to loss of detectable ER and PR; consistent with these data, neither pS2 nor hsp27 expression was detectable. In contrast, X-ray-pretreated VCR-resistant cells (MCF/DXR-10) cells exhibited a distinctive resistance phenotype proving cross-resistant to VLB and VP-16 but not to ADR, and Pgp overexpression was not detectable. Furthermore, these VCR-resistant DXR-10 cells retained parental levels of ER and PR, exhibited sensitivity to estrogen and 4-hydroxytamoxifen, and expressed detectable levels of pS2 and hsp27. Comparable characteristics to these MCF-7/DXR-10 cells were also identified in a similarly-derived X-ray-pretreated VCR-resistant subline of the ZR-75-1 human breast tumor cell line. These data therefore indicate that functional ER are frequently, but not invariably, modified in tumor cells which express resistance to multiple drugs.