Fig. 5.

Suppression effect of Kaem and DIM on E2, TCS or BPA-induced anti-ROS formation and anti-ER stress induced apoptosis in VM7Luc4E2 breast cancer cells. As xenoestrogenic EDCs, TCS and BPA inhibited ROS production, ER stress response and apoptosis of VM7Luc4E2 breast cancer cells similar to E2 and down-regulated the expression of ER stress response-related genes such as CHOP and p-eIF2α. As a result, the protein expression of Bax, a pro-apoptotic gene, was decreased, but the protein expression of Bcl-xl, an anti-apoptotic gene, was increased by E2 and EDCs. Conversely, Kaem and DIM displayed chemopreventive effects against breast cancer progression by effectively producing ROS and ER stress-associated apoptosis in VM7Luc4E2 cells exposed to E2 and EDCs such as TCS and BPA.