Systematic Nucleo-Cytoplasmic Trafficking of Proteins Following Exposure of MCF7 Breast Cancer Cells to Estradiol

We
have used a proteomics subcellular spatial razor approach to
look at changes in total protein abundance and in protein distribution
between the nucleus and cytoplasm following exposure of MCF7 breast
cancer cells to estradiol. The dominant response of MCF7 cells to
estrogen stimulation involves
dynamic changes in protein subcellular spatial distribution rather
than changes in total protein abundance. Of the 3604 quantitatively
monitored proteins, only about 2% show substantial changes in total
abundance (>2-fold), whereas about 20% of the proteins show substantial
changes in local abundance and/or redistribution of their subcellular
location, with up to 16-fold changes in their local concentration
in the nucleus or the cytoplasm. We propose that dynamic redistribution
of the subcellular location of multiple proteins in response to stimuli
is a fundamental characteristic of cells and suggest that perturbation
of cellular spatial control may be an important feature of cancer.