| Protein Background |
Estrogen receptors ? (ER?, ER; NR3A1) is a member of the steroid hormone receptor family. ER? is a ligand-activated transcription factor. ER? contain DNA binding and ligand binding domains. ER? is expressed in a wide variety of tissues, including ovary, uterus, breast, prostate, testis, epididymis, bones, bladder, kidney, heart, vessel wall, pituitary gland and hypothalamus. ER plays a variety of important roles in the maintenance of the reproductive, cardiovascular, musculoskeletal and central nervous systems. The natural ligand for ER is 17?-estradiol, the classical estrogenic compound. The binding of estrogen to ER induces a conformational change and triggers a cascade of events, including dissociation from heat shock proteins, receptor dimerization, phosphorylation and the association of the hormone activated receptor with specific regulatory elements in target genes. |
