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Updated: Jul 18, 2026

Indirect Immunofluorescence on Frozen Sections of Mouse Mammary Gland
Published on: December 1, 2015
GAS6 is an estrogen-inducible gene in mammary epithelial cells
Rigen Mo1, Yiwei Tony Zhu, Zhongyi Zhang
1Department of Pathology, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, 303 East Chicago Avenue, Chicago, IL 60611-3008, USA.
Abstract:
To identify estrogen-responsive genes in mammary glands, microarray assays were performed. Twenty genes were found to be up-regulated while 16 genes were repressed in the 9h estrogen treated glands. The induction of GAS6, one of the genes up-regulated by estrogen, was confirmed by RNase protection assay. Furthermore, GAS6 was also demonstrated to be induced by estrogen in ER positive breast cancer cells. Analysis of GAS6 promoter revealed that GAS6 promoter was regulated by estrogen. An estrogen response element (ERE) was identified in the GAS6 promoter. Electrophoretic mobility shift assay revealed that ERalpha interacted with the ERE in the GAS6 promoter. Chromatin immunoprecipitation demonstrated that ERalpha was recruited to the GAS6 promoter upon estrogen stimulation. These results suggested that GAS6 is an estrogen target gene in mammary epithelial cells.
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