Abstract
We investigated the expression of 1, 25-dihydroxyvitamin D3 receptor (VD-R) by radio-receptor assay in 7 human liver cancer cell lines including HepG2 and PLC/PRF/5, and Change liver cell (Chang). VD-R was detectd in all 7 liver cancer cell lines. These cancer cell lines, except for HepG2, had about 1/6-1/30 the number of binding sites compared with rat osteosarcoma cell line, 17/2Y/7. However, HepG2, which seems to be a highly-differentiated type, also had lower binding sites. In contrast, VD-R was not detected in Chang cells, which seem to be derived from normal adult liver. These results suggest the involvement of VD-R in hepatocarcinogenesis or differentiation of liver cancer cells.
Moreover, VD at a concentration of 10-7M significantly suppressed the proliferation of liver cancer cell lines in which the VD-R was detected, suggesting its application to cancer therapy.
