Historical Background
In 1896, physician George Beatson observed that removal of the ovaries caused regression of mammary tumors in women. His experiments were the first to establish a link between ovarian secretions and breast cancer. Later in the early 1930s, the “female” sex hormones, estrone and estriol, could be isolated from human pregnancy urine, followed by isolation of a third estrogen, estradiol (E2), from pig follicular fluid. Shortly thereafter, a number of estrogenic compounds were synthesized and used therapeutically, but the mechanisms of estrogen action remained obscure. However, in 1958 Elwood Jensen produced a major breakthrough when he used a radioactive marker to demonstrate that only estrogen-responsive tissues were able to concentrate injected estrogen from the blood, suggesting the existence of estrogen-binding components, which were called “estrogen receptors (ERs).” Further...
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsReferences
Carroll JS, Brown M. Estrogen receptor target gene: an evolving concept. Mol Endocrinol. 2006;20:1707–14.
Carroll JS, Meyer CA, Song J, Li W, Geistlinger TR, Eeckhoute J, et al. Genome-wide analysis of estrogen receptor binding sites. Nat Genet. 2006;38:1289–97.
Cloonan N, Forrest AR, Kolle G, Gardiner BB, Faulkner GJ, Brown MK, et al. Stem cell transcriptome profiling via massive-scale mRNA sequencing. Nat Methods. 2008;5:613–9.
Dahlman-Wright K, Cavailles V, Fuqua SA, Jordan VC, Katzenellenbogen JA, Korach KS, et al. International union of pharmacology. LXIV. Estrogen receptors. Pharmacol Rev. 2006;58:773–81.
Kang L, Zhang X, Xie Y, Tu Y, Wang D, Liu Z, et al. Involvement of estrogen receptor variant ER-alpha36, not GPR30, in nongenomic estrogen signaling. Mol Endocrinol. 2010;24:709–21.
Kininis M, Kraus WL. A global view of transcriptional regulation by nuclear receptors: gene expression, factor localization, and DNA sequence analysis. Nucl Recept Signal. 2008;6:e005.
Kininis M, Chen BS, Diehl AG, Isaacs GD, Zhang T, Siepel AC, et al. Genomic analyses of transcription factor binding, histone acetylation, and gene expression reveal mechanistically distinct classes of estrogen-regulated promoters. Mol Cell Biol. 2007;27:5090–104.
Kuiper GG, Enmark E, Pelto-Huikko M, Nilsson S, Gustafsson JA. Cloning of a novel receptor expressed in rat prostate and ovary. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1996;93:5925–30.
Martin LA, Farmer I, Johnston SR, Ali S, Dowsett M. Elevated ERK1/ERK2/estrogen receptor cross-talk enhances estrogen-mediated signaling during long-term estrogen deprivation. Endocr Relat Cancer. 2005;12(Suppl 1):75–84.
Matthews J, Gustafsson JA. Estrogen signaling: a subtle balance between ER alpha and ER beta. Mol Interv. 2003;3:281–92.
O’Lone R, Frith MC, Karlsson EK, Hansen U. Genomic targets of nuclear estrogen receptors. Mol Endocrinol. 2004;18:1859–75.
Ring A, Dowsett M. Mechanisms of tamoxifen resistance. Endocr Relat Cancer. 2004;11:643–58.
Spears M, Bartlett J. The potential role of estrogen receptors and the SRC family as targets for the treatment of breast cancer. Expert Opin Ther Targets. 2009;13:665–74.
Welboren WJ, Stunnenberg HG, Sweep FC, Span PN. Identifying estrogen receptor target genes. Mol Oncol. 2007;1:138–43.
Williams C, Edvardsson K, Lewandowski SA, Strom A, Gustafsson JA. A genome-wide study of the repressive effects of estrogen receptor beta on estrogen receptor alpha signaling in breast cancer cells. Oncogene. 2008;27:1019–32.
Zhao C, Lam EW, Sunters A, Enmark E, De Bella MT, Coombes RC, et al. Expression of estrogen receptor beta isoforms in normal breast epithelial cells and breast cancer: regulation by methylation. Oncogene. 2003;22:7600–6.
Zhao C, Dahlman-Wright K, Gustafsson JA. Estrogen receptor beta: an overview and update. Nucl Recept Signal. 2008;6:e003.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 Springer International Publishing AG
About this entry
Cite this entry
Dahlman-Wright, K., Zhao, C. (2018). Estrogen Receptor. In: Choi, S. (eds) Encyclopedia of Signaling Molecules. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-67199-4_241
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-67199-4_241
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-67198-7
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-67199-4
eBook Packages: Biomedical and Life SciencesReference Module Biomedical and Life Sciences