Estrogen Receptors in the Human Female Genital Tract in Normal and Pathological Conditions

DANIEL R. CIOCCA; LAURA M. VARGAS-ROIG; MARIEL A. FANELLI

BIOCELL

INST HISTOL EMBRIOL-CONICET

Año: 1994 vol. 18 p. 1 - 21

0327-9545

The female genital tract contains the classic target organs for estrogens. Estrogens influence the structure and function of many cell types present in the female reproductive tract both in normal and abnormal states. Most of the actions driven by estrogens are mediated via estrogen receptors (ER), a protein which acts as a transcription factor; progress in the understanding of FR over the last years has been impressive. We believe that a short review concerning ER in the human female genital tract should be useful to know where we are and what we still need to explore to resolve controversial data. Due to space limitations we will not present a in depth critical discussion of the results from the different authors but we will present current background on ER and discuss the biological/clinical implications for the expression of ER in normal and pathological female genital tract tissues.