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Wednesday, June 26th, 2013

Glyphosate Induces Human Breast Cancer Cells Growth via Estrogen Receptors

Author:     THONGPRAKAISANG S, THIANTANAWAT A, RANGKADILOK N, SURIYO T, and SATAYAVIVAD J.
Source:     Food Chemical Toxicology
Publication Date:     2013 Jun 10
 Link: Glyphosate Induces Human Breast Cancer Cells Growth via Estrogen Receptors
Stephan:   This awful poison which Monsanto pushes with such enthusiasm is going to produce a generation of suffering. If the EPA, FDA, Department of Agriculture were doing their jobs protecting us as they should be doing, it would be off-the-market next week. But, as I am writing this, there is a RoundUp commercial running on the television. I decided when I read this to use the abstract of the peer-reviewed journal, one of the leading journals in the field. I am sorry for the technical language, but I wanted to make clear this is not some lay journalist flying a kite. This is the best science we have.

Abstract

Glyphosate is an active ingredient of the most widely used herbicide and it is believed to be less toxic than other pesticides. However, several recent studies showed its potential adverse health effects to humans as it may be an endocrine disruptor. This study focuses on the effects of pure glyphosate on estrogen receptors (ERs) mediated transcriptional activity and their expressions. Glyphosate exerted proliferative effects only in human hormone-dependent breast cancer, T47D cells, but not in hormone-independent breast cancer, MDA-MB231 cells, at 10-12 to 10-6M in estrogen withdrawal condition. The proliferative concentrations of glyphosate that induced the activation of estrogen response element (ERE) transcription activity were 5-13 fold of control in T47D-KBluc cells and this activation was inhibited by an estrogen antagonist, ICI 182780, indicating that the estrogenic activity of glyphosate was mediated via ERs. Furthermore, glyphosate also altered both ERα and β expression. These results indicated that low and environmentally relevant concentrations of glyphosate possessed estrogenic activity. Glyphosate-based herbicides are widely used for soybean cultivation, and our results also found that there was an additive estrogenic effect between glyphosate and genistein, a phytoestrogen in soybeans. However, these additive effects of glyphosate contamination in soybeans need further animal study.

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