Table 3.

Effect of estrogen, nitric oxide (NO), and NAME on maspin synthesis in normal, estrogen receptor + (ER+), and ER– neutrophils

Maspin(nM/6 × 109 cells)
	NORMAL	ER+	ER-
Estrogen (0.6 nM)	2.383 ± 0.014a	1.422 ± 0.029b	0
NO (5 μM)	2.90 ± 0.17ac	1.95 ± 0.13bc	0.870 ± 0.005c
Estrogen (0.6 nM) + NAME (10 mM)	0	0	0
NO (5 μM) + NAME (10 mM)	2.90 ± 0.17	1.95 ± 0.13	0.870 ± 0.005

The neutrophil suspensions were prepared from the blood of patients with ER+ or ER– breast cancer and of age-matched normal female volunteers as described in the Materials and Methods section. The neutrophil preparations (6 × 10⁹ cells/L) were suspended in Hank’s balanced salt solution (pH7.4) and treated with estrogen (0.6 nM) and NO (5 μM). In a separate experiment, a neutrophil suspension was incubated with NAME (10 mM) and with either NO or estrogen. Results are mean ± SD of five different experiments in triplicate using blood of 15 patients with breast cancer and 15 normal female volunteers.

^aP<0.005, n=5;

^bP<0.005, n=5;

^cP<0.005, n=5.