Clonal heterogeneity of the growth and invasive response of a human breast carcinoma cell line to parathyroid hormone-related peptide fragments

It has been previously reported that 8701-BC cells, derived from a primary carcinoma of the breast, constitutively express parathyroid hormone (PTH)-related peptide (PTHrP) and PTH/PTHrP receptor (PTH/PTHrP-R) genes, that N-terminal, mid-regional and C-terminal immunoreactive PTHrP can be found in cell conditioned medium and, furthermore, that exogenously added PTHrP (1-34), (67-86) and, to a minor extent, (107-139) are anti-mitogenic but promote Matrigel invasion by this cell line. It has also been reported that PTHrP gene expression is selectively switched on in those 8701-BC clonal lines endowed with a higher proliferation rate and invasive ability in vitro. Here we have first examined t…