Figure 2.

Effects of tamoxifen, raloxifene and toremifene on LDL receptor expression. (A) Lymphocytes from four male donors were treated with 10% LPDS alone or supplemented with 60 μg·mL⁻¹ LDL plus vehicle (control) or 5 μM tamoxifen (TAM), raloxifene (RAL) or toremifene (TOR) for 6, 22 or 46 h, then the media were replaced with fresh medium containing 30 μg·mL⁻¹ DiI-LDL and DiI-LDL uptake was measured after an additional 2 h incubation. Data (mean ± SEM) are expressed as % of the LPDS condition at the corresponding time of treatment of the same cell preparation. DiI-LDL uptake (mean ± SEM) with LPDS was 17.7 ± 4.7, 21.3 ± 4.7 and 24.1 ± 5.4 arbitrary units of fluorescence at 8, 24 and 48 h respectively. The trends were compared by two-way RM anova and post hoc by the Student–Newman–Keuls test. ^*P < 0.05, ^**P < 0.01, ^***P < 0.001. (B) Representative Western blot of lymphocytes from a male donor (left). Lymphocytes were treated with LPDS or LDL plus vehicle or 5 μM SERMs for the indicated times. Then, cells were lysed and 80 μg of protein were subjected to SDS-PAGE. The right panel represents the ratio (mean ± SEM) between the densities of LDLR and GAPDH bands after 24 h of treatment for lymphocytes from four male donors. Data are expressed as % of the LPDS condition of the same cell preparation. Statistical analysis was performed by one-way RM anova and post hoc by Student–Newman–Keuls test. ^*P < 0.05, ^**P < 0.01, ^***P < 0.001 versus control; #P < 0.05 versus RAL.