Ammonium nitrate

The human breast adenocarcinoma (MCF-7) cell line was obtained from the Egyptian Holding Company for Biological Products and Vaccines (VACSERA, Giza, Egypt). Ammonium nitrate, magnesium sulfate, potassium nitrate, boric acid, cobalt chloride, cupric sulfate, manganese sulfate, potassium iodine, sodium molybdate, zinc sulfate, citric acid and sodium citrate were purchased from Wako Pure Chemical Industries^® (Tokyo, Japan). Calcium chloride, dextrose, potassium hexacyanoferrate II, potassium hexacyanoferrate III and sodium carbonate were obtained from Merck^® (Darmstadt, Germany), while potassium phosphate, sodium chloride, ferrous sulfate, Na₂-EDTA2H₂O, nicotinic acid, pyridoxineHCl, thiamineHCl, Fe-EDTA, 4-morpholineethanesulfonic acid, τ-inositol, sucrose, phytoagar, sodium phosphate, silymarin, triton X-100, 5-bromo-4-chloro-3-indoly-β-d-glucuronide and α-Rhamnase were purchased from Sigma-Aldrich Corp. (St. Louis, MO, USA). 17β-estradiol was purchased from Takeda Chemical Industries Ltd. (Osaka, Japan). Solvents used were of analytical grade unless mentioned and were purchased from Merck, J.T. Backer^® (Deventer, The Netherlands) and Theo Seulberger^® (Karlsruhe, Germany). Media and supplements for cell cultures were obtained from Gibco^®/Invitrogen (Karlsruhe, Germany) and Greiner Labortechnik^® (Frickenhausen, Germany).