Establishment ofin vitro test system for the evaluation of the estrogenic activities of natural products

In order to evaluate estrogenic compounds in natural products, anin vitro detection system was established. For this system, the human breast cancer cell line MCF7 was stably transfected using an estrogen responsive chloramphenicol acetyltransferase (CAT) reporter plasmid yielding MCF7/pDsCAT-ERE119-Ad2MLP cells. To test the estrogenic responsiveness of thisin vitro assay system, MCF7/pDsCAT-ERE119-Ad2MLP cells were treated with various concentrations of 17ß-estradiol. Treatments of 10-8 to 10-12 M 17β-estradiol revealed significant concentration dependent estrogenic activities compared with ethanol. We usedin vitro assay system to detect estrogenic effects inPuerariae radix andGinseng radix Rubra extracts. Treatment of 500 and 50 μg/ml ofPuerariae radix extracts increased the transcriptional activity approximately 4- and 1.5-fold, respectively, compared with the ethanol treatment. Treatment of 500, 50, and 5 μg/ml ofGinseng radix Rubra extracts increased the transcriptional activity approximately 3.2-, 2.7, and 1.4-fold, respectively, compared with the ethanol treatment. These observations suggest thatPuerariae radix andGinseng radix Rubra extracts have effective estrogenic actions and that they could be developed as estrogenic supplements.