Expression of growth factors and oncogenes in normal and tumor-derived human mammary epithelial cells

The expression of genes which may be involved in the regulation of human mammary epithelial cell growth [transforming growth factors a and β] and tumorigenesis [c-myc, erbB2, epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), Ha-ras, pS2] has been compared in similarly cultured normal cell strains and tumor cell lines. We have found that the normal breast cells produce high levels of EGFR mRNA, which are translated into nearly 105 low affinity epidermal growth factor-binding molecules/cell. In the estrogen receptor-negative lines examined, the EGFR gene was expressed at levels comparable to those in the normal cells. In contrast, EGFR and transforming growth factor a mRNAs were reduced in estrogen receptor-positive tumor lines compared to estrogen receptor-negative lines and normal cells. Steady state mRNA levels for transforming growth factor β, erbB2, c-myc, and Ha-ras in the normal cells were greater than or comparable to those in all of the breast tumor lines. Furthermore, in the absence of gene amplification, only one of the genes examined (i.e, pS2) was overexpressed in a subset of the tumor cells compared to their normal counterparts. Several reports by other investigators have described overexpression of some of these genes in breast biopsies and in tumor lines in studies lacking normal controls. Thus, our results, in which the same genes were not overexpressed compared to normal cells unless amplified, underscore the importance of including appropriate normal controls in studies aimed at defining aberrant patterns of gene expression in tumor cells.