Estrogen memory effect in human hepatocytes during repeated cell division without hormone.

Transient stimulation of target tissues by sex steroids can cause long-lasting changes that may facilitate or alter responses to subsequent hormonal treatment. How these altered characteristics are propagated during cell division in the absence of the stimulating hormone is unknown. The human hepatocarcinoma cell line HepG2 was used as a model to examine the effects of estrogen on the synthesis of serum apolipoproteins in vitro. Treatment with low concentrations of estrogen for 24 to 48 hours resulted in long-lasting alterations in the kinetics with which the cells responded to subsequent stimulation with estrogen. Manifestation of this memory effect was correlated quantitatively with the induction and propagation of a moderate-affinity, nuclear, estrogen-binding protein with the characteristics of a type II estrogen receptor. The data indicate that transient exposure of these cells to estrogen can induce changes in their response characteristics and composition of nuclear proteins that are inherited by daughter cells grown in the absence of hormone for more than ten generations.