The Puzzling Issue of ‘Vehicle-Treated Control’ when Using Ethanol as Drug Carrier for MCF-7 Cells

Ethanol has been commonly used as a vehicle for drug discovery purpose in vitro . The human breast cancer MCF‐7 estrogen dependent cell line is a common in vitro model used for hormonal therapy study. However, special precaution is suggested when ethanol is used in pharmacological tests as solvent in order to evaluate the biological activity of potential drugs especially concerning about the MCF‐7. Ethanol was shown to stimulate the...