Unit 5 - Discussion of Wordle

My Masters of Science in Biotechnology focused on the interactions of over the counter phytoestrogens on breast cancer cells. For this activity I choose to create a Wordle diagram of my thesis, "Comparisons of the effects of an OTC phytoestrogen extract (Promensil) and 17ß-estradiol on the proliferation of MCF7 cells, a neoplastic breast epithelial cell line." I chose this topic because I felt that I had a very good grasp on the hierarchical nature of this text. I choose to do two different Wordle diagrams: one of the entire document and then a separate one encompassing only the results and conclusions sections of my thesis. I constructed these two diagrams because I felt that it would be interesting to compare the overall document to the results.

Thesis in a Cloud

My first Wordle diagram was constructed based on my complete thesis. I was at first struck by what an amazing job this site did at reducing my over 50 page document to just a (relatively few words). The software seems to work on a frequency algorithm that discounts common English words (e.g. the word 'the'). I think frequency does a decent job at picking out the important words in a document, however frequency means that unimportant but highly used can appear in the Wordle in a way that makes them appear more important than they are. In my Wordle the Latin abbreviation et al appeared in fairly large font because many of my references had multiple authors. Et al was clearly not a focus in my paper and therefor I would rank this as a aberration in the hierarchy. However overall I think Wordle did a really good job! My thesis focused on the effects of Prominsil extract on MCF-7 cells. The main active component in Prominsil is the Phytoestrogen genistein which binds to the estrogen receptor and mimics 17ß-estradiol the predominate form of estrogen in the body. The bold words above correspond to the largest words in the Wordle.

Thesis Results in a Cloud

As an experiment I created a second Wordle using only the results and conclusions sections of my thesis. I feel that the results in this Wordle are a bit more accurate which may be attributed to the smaller amount of more focused text that was fed into the software.

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I am including the abstract from my thesis below in case anyone is interested :)

Due to the serious risks associated with estrogen therapy following menopause many women are turning to a natural alternative, phytoestrogens. Phytoestrogens are plant derived compounds which induce estrogenic response in humans. Estrogenic response is produced by phytoestrogens interacting directly with the estrogen receptor. The estrogen receptor is a steroid receptor belonging to the nuclear receptor family, which has high affinity for both its native ligand 17β-estradiol and phytoestrogens.

Many women seeking to avoid the drawbacks of estrogen therapy opt to “safely and naturally” relieve menopausal symptoms with over the counter phytoestrogen supplements. While anecdotal evidence suggests phytoestrogen supplements do indeed provide menopausal relief the true risk to the individual has yet to be assessed. The goal of this project was to assess the effects of an OTC phytoestrogen supplement, Promensil^®, on the proliferation of an ER positive neoplastic breast epithelial cell line, MCF-7.

Exposure to 100% Promensil^® extract caused a marked decrease in cell growth relative to control over all assay systems used; MTT, tritiated thymidine uptake, and PCNA immunoblotting. Reduction in cellular growth was accompanied by an upregulation in the caspase pathway, as evidenced by the presence of procaspase-3 banding in phytoestrogen treated cells. While further investigation is warranted, a reduction in the growth of ER positive neoplastic breast epithelial cells through the use of phytoestrogens could prove to have real life clinical implications. Defined phytoestrogen mixtures may prove to be potential drug candidates for the prophylactic treatment of women at high risk for breast cancer.