Limited species differences in estrogen receptor alpha-medicated reporter gene transactivation by xenoestrogens

• Published in: The Journal of steroid biochemistry and molecular biology Vol. 84; no. 1; pp. 33 - 40
• Main Authors: Sumida, Kayo, Ooe, Norihisa, Saito, Koichi, Kaneko, Hideo
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford Elsevier Ltd 2003; Elsevier Science
• Subjects: Alligators and Crocodiles; Amino Acid Sequence; Animals; Anura; Biological and medical sciences; Cell receptors; Cell structures and functions; Chickens; DNA, Complementary - metabolism; Dose-Response Relationship, Drug; Estrogen receptor; Estrogen Receptor alpha; Estrogens - metabolism; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Genes, Reporter; Genetic Vectors; HeLa Cells; Hormone receptors. Growth factor receptors. Cytokine receptors. Prostaglandin receptors; Humans; Lizards; Luciferases - metabolism; Molecular and cellular biology; Molecular Sequence Data; Protein Binding; Protein Structure, Tertiary; Rats; Receptors, Estrogen - metabolism; Reporter gene assay; Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; RNA, Messenger - metabolism; Sequence Homology, Amino Acid; Species differences; Species Specificity; Temperature; Transactivation; Transcriptional Activation; Transfection; Trout; Reporter gene assay; Estrogen receptor; Transactivation; Species differences; Human; Rat; Interspecific comparison; Rodentia; Estrogen; Amphibia; Species specificity; Uterine cervix; Gene expression; Response element; In vitro; Ovarian hormone; Biological activity; Estrogen receptor α; Vertebrata; Mammalia; Cell line; Pisces; Trans effect; Sex steroid hormone; Xenobiotic
• ISSN: 0960-0760; 1879-1220
• DOI: 10.1016/S0960-0760(03)00003-7

Estrogen receptors (ERs) play an important role in estrogen function. However, it is well known that there are species differences in amino acid sequences of the ligand binding domains. Here, we report on the analysis of species differences in ER-dependent transactivation with some chemicals using reporter gene assays. Full-length ER cDNAs from human, rat, chicken, alligator (Caiman), whiptail lizard, African clawed frog and rainbow trout were prepared from hepatic mRNA by the RT-PCR method and inserted into expression plasmids. Both expression and reporter plasmids were transiently transfected into HeLa cells, and then the estrogenic effects of chemicals were analyzed in terms of induction of luciferase activity. No species differences in transactivation were found among human, rat, chicken, alligator, whiptail lizard and African clawed frog ERs. However, thermo-dependent alteration in susceptibility to 17-β-estradiol was observed with the rainbow trout ER because of thermo-dependence of estrogen binding.