P-glycoprotein expression in human breast cancer cells.

Multidrug resistance in Chinese hamster ovary cells is associated with the Mr 170,000 surface glycoprotein. Using our monoclonal antibody to this protein, we have isolated a complementary DNA clone from an expression vector library. This complementary DNA recognizes a 4.5-kilobase mRNA in drug-resistant but not-sensitive Chinese hamster ovary cells; it also recognizes a 5.0-kilobase mRNA in our Adriamycin-resistant subline of the MDA-231 human breast cancer cell line which is not expressed in the drug-sensitive parent line. Southern blot analysis shows that the P-glycoprotein sequences are greatly amplified in resistant Chinese hamster ovary cells but not in the resistant human breast cancer cells, indicating that amplification and expression of the Mr 170,000 P-glycoprotein gene are not necessarily coordinate events. Amplification of this gene may not be required for multidrug resistance in human cells.