Expression of GLUT1 gene in breast cancer cell lines MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231.

Objectives: Overexpression of membrane glucose transporters belonging to GLUT family, is a common feature of different malignancies. It has been found that the level of expression of some members of this large family correlates with invasiveness of some malignant tumors. GLUT1 is an example of the most often studied and best known members of GLUT receptors. We attempted to compare the expression level of GLUT1 gene in two breast cancer cell lines: hormone-positive MCF-7 and hormone-resistant, less differentiated and more aggressive MDA-MB-231.

Materials And Methods: A multiplex PCR (after RT) was performed in order to semiquantiatively compare differences in the expression of GLUT1 in both cell lines.

Results: We found a difference in mRNA expression of GLUT1 in two cell lines. Densitometric optical analysis of bands resulted in the following results: in MCF-7 for GLUT1: 0.624; and in MDA-MB-231 0.875.

Conclusions: In our studies we showed differences in GLUT1 receptor mRNA expression in two breast cancer cell lines with higher expression in MDA-MB-231. The results show that invasiveness of cancer cells may be to some extent associated with the expression of glucose transporters, including GLUT1.