EXPRESSION OF FAS-ESTROGEN RECEPTOR FUSION PROTEIN INDUCES CELL-DEATHIN PANCREATIC-CANCER CELL-LINES

Recently, a novel system to induce apoptosis was reported. Fusion prot ein between Fas and the ligand-binding domain of the estrogen receptor (MfasER) could cause apoptotic cell death in an estrogen-dependent ma nner on murine fibrosarcoma L929 cells and human cervical carcinoma He La cells [1]. To investigate the application of this system to the gen e therapy of pancreatic cancer, we introduced MfasER cDNA to six cell lines. Transiently expressed MfasER could cause cell death in all the cell lines tested. Furthermore, stably MfasER-expressing cells showed DNA fragmentation as early as 2 h and completely died in 48 h in the p resence of estrogen. Combined with effective methods to introduce gene s to pancreatic cancer selectively, MfasER would be a good tool for th e gene therapy of pancreatic cancer in the future. (C) 1997 Elsevier S cience Ireland Ltd.