Estrogen-Dependent Cellular Pathway Regulation

All reagents used in this study were commercially available. 17β-estradiol was purchased from Sigma-Aldrich (St Louis, MO, USA). Dulbecco’s Modified Eagle’s Medium/F-12 (DMEM/F-12) and fetal bovine serum (FBS) were purchased from Invitrogen (Carlsbad, CA, USA). Poloxamer 407-grafted heparin copolymer was synthesized by our laboratory, as previously reported.17 (link) GRP78, CHOP, anti-Akt, phosphorylated-Akt (Ser473), anti-ERK, and phosphorylated-ERK antibodies were purchased from Santa Cruz Biotechnology (Santa Cruz, CA, USA). VEGF, Ki67, TGF-β, and caspase-12 were ordered from Abcam (Abcam, CB, UK). PI3K/Akt inhibitor LY294002, ERK1/2 inhibitor PD98059, and all other reagents were purchased from the Beyotime Institute of Biotechnology (Shanghai, China), unless otherwise specified.