Volume 11 Issue 4, December 2001: 321-324
COMMENTARY
Expression of estrogen receptor (ER) -α and -β transcripts in the neonatal and adult rat cerebral cortex, cerebellum, and olfactory bulb
GUO Xing Zhong1,*, Jun Da SU2, 3, **, Qing Wen SUN1, Bing Hua JIAO1
1Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Second Military Medical University, Shanghai 200433
2School of Life Sciences and Medical Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai 200092, China
3Shanghai Institute of Physiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 200031, China
Correspondence:
In the present study expression of
estrogen receptor subtype -
a (ER
a)
and -
b (ER
b) in the
cerebral cortex, cerebellum, and olfactory bulb was investigated and compared
between neonatal (1
~ 3-days-old) and adult (250
~ 350g) rats, using reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR).
No ER
a transcripts were detectable in the adult
cerebellum and olfactory bulb, whereas very weak expression of ER
a was present in the adult cerebral cortex. No significant difference in ER
b transcripts was detectable between the neonatal and adult rats. While
transcripts for both ER subtypes were co-expressed in these brain areas of
neonatal rats, although ER
a expression was
significantly weaker than ER
b. Even in the cerebral
cortex known to contain both ER subtypes in adult rats, ER
a transcripts in neonatal rats were much higher than in adult. These observations
provide evidence for the existence of different expression patterns of ER
a/ER
b transcripts in these three brain areas between the neonatal and adult rats,
suggesting that each ER subtype may play a distinct role in the regulation of
differentiation, development, and functions of the brain by estrogen.
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