Here we employed defined three dimensional low density/compliant and high density/stiff collagen-I matrices to investigate the effects on 17β-estradiol (E2) activity and PRL/E2 interactions in two well-characterized ERα+/PRLR+ luminal breast cancer cell lines in vitro. We demonstrate that matrix density modulated E2-induced transcripts, but did not alter the growth response. This evidence concerns the gene PRL and breast cancer.