Imatinib mesylate is an anti‑neoplastic targeted chemotherapeutic agent, which can inhibit tyrosine kinase receptors, including BCR‑ABL, platelet‑derived growth factor receptors (PDGFRs) and c‑Kit. Cellular processes, including differentiation, proliferation and survival are regulated by these receptors. The present study aimed to evaluate the antiproliferative effects of imatinib mesylate, and its effects on apoptotic induction and cell cycle arrest in breast cancer cell lines. In addition, the study aimed to determine whether the effects of this drug were associated with the mRNA and protein expression levels of PDGFR‑β, c‑Kit, and their corresponding ligands PDGF‑BB and stem cell factor (SCF), which may potentially modulate cell survival and proliferation. To assess the antiproliferative effects of imatinib mesylate, an MTS assay was conducted following treatment of cells with 2‑10 µM imatinib mesylate for 96, 120 and 144 h; accordingly the half maximal inhibitory concentration of imatinib mesylate was calculated for each cell line. In addition, the proapoptotic effects and cytostatic activity of imatinib mesylate were investigated. To evaluate the expression of imatinib‑targeted genes, PDGFR‑β, c‑Kit, PDGF‑BB and SCF, under imatinib mesylate treatment, mRNA expression was detected using semi‑quantitative polymerase chain reaction and protein expression was detected by western blot analysis in ZR‑75‑1 and MDA‑MB‑231 breast carcinoma cell lines. Treatment with imatinib mesylate suppressed cell proliferation, which was accompanied by apoptotic induction and cell cycle arrest in the investigated cell lines. In addition, PDGFR‑β, PDGF‑BB, c‑Kit and SCF were expressed in both breast carcinoma cell lines; PDGFR‑β and c‑Kit, as imatinib targets, were downregulated in response to imatinib mesylate treatment. The present results revealed that at least two potential targets of imatinib mesylate were expressed in the two breast carcinoma cell lines studied. In conclusion, the antiproliferative, cytostatic and proapoptotic effects of imatinib mesylate may be the result of a reduction in the expression of c‑Kit and PDGFR tyrosine kinase receptors, thus resulting in suppression of the corresponding ligand PDGF‑BB. Therefore, imatinib mesylate may be considered a promising target therapy for the future treatment of breast cancer.
An interested reader drew to our attention that the above study appeared to contain a high level of overlap with an article by the same authors published in the journal Drug Design, Development and Therapy [Kadivar A, Kamalidehghan B, Akbari Javar H, Karimi B, Sedghi R and Noordin MI: Antiproliferation effect of imatinib mesylate on MCF7, T‑47D tumorigenic and MCF 10A nontumorigenic breast cell lines via PDGFR‑β, PDGF‑BB, c‑Kit and SCF genes. Drug Des Devel Ther 11: 469‑481, 2017]. Following an internal investigation and also in liaison with the authors, it was established that, although the studies were conducted along broadly similar lines, the papers contained entirely different data involving two different subsets of cell lines; the submission to Drug Des Devel Ther aimed to explore the effects of imatinib mesylate on three different groups, with each group being represented by a cell line, whereas the submission to Int J Mol Med explored the effectiveness of imatinib mesylate in breast cancer cell lines. In spite of this, considering the relatedness of the articles and the fact that the paper to Drug Des Devel Ther was submitted first and published while the Int J Mol Med paper was passing through the peer‑review process, the authors concede that they should have properly referenced their paper submitted to Drug Des Devel Ther in the Int J Mol Med paper. Note that the publishers of Drug Des Devel Ther, with whom we were liaising, agreed with the decision to issue a Corrigendum for this paper that acknowledges the article published in Drug Des Devel Ther. The authors regret their failure to acknowledge the related paper in this instance, and apologize to the readership for this oversight. [the original article was published in International Journal of Molecular Medicine 14: 414‑424, 2018; DOI: 10.3892/ijmm.2018.3590].