The further addition of the α-1 serum protein first purified by Holmes 9 results in a morphology identical to that of cells in 10% serum. This medium will support a growth rate identical to that of cells in medium supplemented with an optimal concentration of fetal calf serum. We now report that MCF-7 cells may be grown, without a lag or adaptation phase, in a serum-free medium supplemented with physiological levels of insulin, transferrin, epidermal growth factor (EGF), prostaglandin F 2 α (PGF 2 α) and cold-insoluble globulin (CIg). Our laboratory has shown that it is possible to replace the serum requirement for a number of cell lines with mixtures of hormones and purified serum factors 6–8. The complex and undefined nature of serum adds a complicating aspect to the design and interpretation of any experiments aimed at understanding the interactions of hormones or drugs with mammary epithelium.
This line, like most cells in culture, requires the addition of a serum supplement to the medium for growth. These cells also show responses to prolactin 5, and dome formation 1. MCF-7 cells have been reported to possess receptors for oestrogen, androgen, progesterone, glucocorticoid 2, insulin 3 and L-3, 3′, 5-triiodothyronine (T 3) 4. The MCF-7 line of human mammary carcinoma cells is a well characterised line 1 which has retained a number of the properties expressed by breast epithelium in vivo, making it a good model for the in vitro study of normal and neoplastic mammary cells.
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