DISTRIBUTION OF ESTROGEN-RECEPTOR HETEROGENEITY IN GROWING MCF-7 CELLS MEASURED BY QUANTITATIVE MICROSCOPY

The existence of interactive subpopulations is a biological feature th at can modulate the proliferation of tumor cells, The hormone-responsi ve breast cancer cell line MCF-7 has been described as heterogeneous i n terms of density, In this study we describe a quantitative image ana lysis methodology that we developed for the in situ detection of diffe rent subpopulations in MCF-7 cell cultures. Using this technology, we demonstrate the heterogeneity of the MCF-7 cell line in terms of both nuclear size and estrogen-receptor content. Analysis of the organizati on (topography) of the different subpopulations in culture reveals a n onrandom distribution of cells. When studying the development of these cell subpopulations as a function of time of culture, we observe modi fications of their topography associated with an increase of estrogen- receptor-expressing cells. Moreover, the use of cluster analysis allow s study of the local organization of these subpopulations. These chang es appear to be independent of cell proliferation. (C) 1997 Wiley-Liss , Inc.