Stimulation of cell invasion and migration by alcohol in breast cancer cells.

Increasing epidemiological studies suggest that alcohol consumption confers a high risk for development of breast cancer. In this study, we found that biologically relevant concentrations of alcohol elicited a significant stimulation of cell adhesion, migration, and invasion in MCF-7 human breast cancer cells. Moreover, the promotion of invasion and migration potential by alcohol was associated with the significant decrease of E-cadherin, alpha, beta, and gamma three major catenin, and BRCA1 expression. In addition, an enhanced expression of BRCA1 significantly blocked alcohol-stimulated cell invasion. Thus, our present study suggests that alcohol as a breast cancer risk factor plays an important role not only in carcinogenesis, but also in promotion of cell invasion and migration.