The Inhibitory Effect Of Metformin On Breast Cancer Cell Line MCF-7

Objective:To identify the percentage of SP (side population) cells of MCF-7 cancer cell line, observe whether the metformin, paclitaxil liposome and tamoxifen can kill SP cells and investigate the existence synergistic effects of drugs above.Methods:The MCF-7 cells were treated with metformin (0.3mmol/L), paclitaxil liposome (60μg/L), tamoxifen (10μmol/L) respectively and combined. After staining with Hoechst33342 and PI (the other groups adding Verapamil as control), the percentages of SP cells were detected in flow cytometry.Results:1. The percentage of SP cells in MCF-7 cancer cell line was (3.65±0.42)%.2. The percentages of SP cells of groups metformin, paclitaxil liposome, metformin+paclitaxil liposome, tamoxifen, metformin+ tamoxifen were (0.72±0.13)%, (3.45±0.32)%, (0.74±0.16)%, (3.56±0.51)%, (0.87±0.12)%. There are significant differences among them.3. We found significant difference between 3 groups treated with metformin and other groups (p<0.01), while there were no evidence of significant differences among these 3 groups (p>0.05).4. We found no significant differences after pairwise comparing control group, group treated with paclitaxil liposome and group treated with tamoxifen (p>0.05).Conclusion:1. Metformin in the concentration of 0.1mmol/L is capable of kill SP cell of MCF-7 cancer cell line effectively.2. Metformin combined with paclitaxil liposome or tamoxifen show no synergistic effects.