FIG. 3.

Estrogen stimulates adhesion of thyroid cells. About 5 × 10⁵ cells were plated in six-well culture dishes in the presence of ±10⁻⁸ M E₂ ± fulvestrant. After 2.5 hours, the medium was removed, and wells were gently washed with phosphate-buffered saline to remove nonadherent cells. Viable adhered cells were removed by scraping and counted using trypan blue dye exclusion test. The groups are as follows: untreated (white bars), E₂ treated (black bars), and E₂ + fulvestrant treated (flv) (gray bars). MCF-7 was used as a positive control. E₂-mediated increase in the number of adhesive cells expressed as % of control (100%). * denotes statistically significant differences (p < 0.05) between experimental and control groups. ** denotes statistically significant differences (p < 0.001) between experimental and control groups.