ESTROGEN RECEPTOR alfa IS EXPRESSED ON THE CELL-SURFACE OF EMBRYONIC HYPOTHALAMIC NEURONS

S.V. GOROSITO; A.G. LORENZO; M.J. CAMBIASSO

NEUROSCIENCE

Elsevier Science

Año: 2008 vol. 154 p. 1173 - 1177

0306-4522

Although the biological activity of estrogen is generally mediated through nuclear estrogen receptors, a large body of evidence indicates that estrogen may also affect target cells upon binding to putative membrane estrogen receptors (mER) coupled to intracellular signaling cascades; however, no agreement has been reached on the nature and precise location of the putative ER responsible for these rapid effects. In the present report we show that the expression of ERa, but not ERb or GPR30, is associated with the plasma membrane fraction of hypothalamic tissue at E16. Moreover, our experiments extend these results to hypothalamic neurons in vitro showing that ERa can be detected from the cell exterior as a biotinylated cell-surface protein. We have also shown that the mERa is under E2-regulation and the ERa agonist, PPT, induced ERK signaling in a dose-dependent manner in times not compatible with genomic actions, supporting the notion of a membrane-initiated phenomenon.