Coexpression of wild-type and variant oestrogen receptor mRNAs in a panel of human breast cancer cell lines

Wild-type as well as variant oestrogen receptor (ER) mRNAs with exon 5 and 7 deleted were identified in a panel of human breast tumour cell lines by reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction followed by dideoxynucleotide sequence analysis, and then quantitated by ribonuclease protection analysis. All cell lines categorised as ER+ by ligand-binding analysis expressed both wild-type and variant ER transcripts. Most cell lines classified as ER- did not express any ER transcript. However, three ER- cell lines (BT-20, MDA-MB-330 and T47Dco) expressed both wild-type and variant transcripts. A differential pattern of expression of wild type to variant was seen in both ER+ and ER- cell lines, however this pattern was not paralleled by differences in ligand-binding activity. Breast tumour cell lines previously classified as ER- expressed significantly lower levels of ER transcripts than did their ER+ counterparts. In view of these findings, as well as earlier reports that the exon 5 deletion ER variant encodes a dominant-positive receptor, it seems clear that some cell lines are misclassified as ER-, and express both wild-type and variant ER mRNAs, and that the overexpression of this variant may account, in part, for their oestrogen-independent phenotype.