Estrogens modulate the responsiveness of osteoblast-like cells (ROS 17/2.8) stably transfected with estrogen receptor

Recent studies have demonstrated the presence of estrogen receptor (ER) in both normal human osteoblast-like and osteoblast-like osteosarcoma cells. The number of ER in cultured osteoblastic cells is very low (200-500 sites/cell). This has complicated characterization of the biological role of estrogens in bone cells. To study the responsiveness of bone cells to estrogens, we established osteoblast-like cell lines expressing higher ER levels. ROS 17/2.8, an osteoblastic cell line, was stably transfected with the cDNA encoding for the mouse ER. After a selection period, positive clones were isolated and evaluated for the presence of ER by both Northern blot analysis and ligand binding assays. Using these techniques, we detected a significant increase in the level of both ER transcript and binding compared to that in wild-type cells. The levels of expressed ER protein were similar to those reported in normal human osteoblast-like cells in primary culture (approximately 2000 sites/cell). To test whether the exogenously inserted ER was responsive, both wild-type and ER stably transfected cells were transiently transfected with a reporter construct containing an estrogen-responsive element linked to a truncated thymidine kinase promoter and a chloramphenicol acetyltransferase (CAT) reporter gene. Exposure of the cells to increased concentrations of estradiol induced a slight increase in CAT activity in wild-type cells (approximately 1.5-fold) at maximal stimulation; however, it provoked a clear concentration-dependent increase in CAT activity in the ER stably transfected cells, with a maximal stimulation of approximately 10-fold. This event was receptor mediated, since ICI 164,384, an ER antagonist, blocked the enhancement of estradiol-induced CAT activity, and it was specific, since other steroid hormones did not stimulate CAT activity. Finally, we evaluated the ability of ER to modulate an endogenous estrogen-responsive gene by measuring the activity of the enzyme alkaline phosphatase. In addition, diethylstilbestrol, a synthetic estrogen agonist, increased the activity of both the CAT reporter gene and the endogenous alkaline phosphatase enzyme. In summary, we have established osteoblast-like cells expressing high levels of an exogenously inserted ER, which has characteristics similar to those of the endogenous ER in terms of its Kd. Finally, the exogenous ER regulates both exogenously inserted construct (VITERECAT) and endogenous properties of the cells (enzymatic activity and proliferation).