Journal
CIRCULATION
Volume 101, Issue 15, Pages 1792-1798Publisher
LIPPINCOTT WILLIAMS & WILKINS
DOI: 10.1161/01.CIR.101.15.1792
Keywords
muscle, smooth; receptors, estrogen; coronary disease; human
Funding
- NCI NIH HHS [CA26860] Funding Source: Medline
- NHLBI NIH HHS [HL55291, HL57144] Funding Source: Medline
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Background-Estrogens have vascular effects through the activation of estrogen receptors (ERs). In addition to ER alpha, the first ER to be cloned, a second subtype called ER beta has recently been discovered. Methods and Results-Using a reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction assay that employs the same primer pair to simultaneously amplify ER alpha and ER beta transcripts, we found that ER beta is the ER form that is predominantly expressed in human vascular smooth muscle, particularly in women. The transcriptional effects of the 2 ERs in transfected HeLa cells differed. In response to 17 beta-estradiol, ER alpha is a stronger transactivator than ER beta at low receptor concentrations. However, at higher receptor concentrations, ER alpha activity self-squelches, and ER beta is a stronger transactivator. Tamoxifen has partial agonist effects with ER alpha but not with ER beta. Conclusions-The protective effects of estrogens in the cardiovascular system of women may be due to the genomic effects of ER beta in vascular tissue.
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