Nerve growth factor is mitogenic for cancerous but not normal human breast epithelial cells

We show here that nerve growth factor (NGF), the archetypal neurotrophic factor, is able to stimulate the proliferation of breast cancer cells (MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231 cell lines), although it is unable to stimulate growth of normal breast epithelial cells (NBEC), This stimulation induced cells in the G(0) phase to reenter the cell cycle, as well as shortening cell cycle duration. Immunoblotting experiments revealed that both the two cancer cell lines and the NBEC express high affinity (p140(trk)) and low affinity (p75) NGF receptors. Inhibition of the NGF growth-promoting effect by the drugs K-252a and PD98059 indicated that activation of Trk-tyrosine kinase activity and the mitogen-activated protein kinase cascade are necessary to obtain the mitogenic effect. Activation of mitogen-activated protein kinase can be detected in breast cancer cells after 10 min of NGF stimulation, whereas no change was detected in NBEC. These results demonstrate that NGF is a mitogenic factor for human breast cancer cells and that it might constitute a new regulator of breast tumor growth.