Estrogen receptors in prostate development and cancer

Prostate cancer (PCa) is an androgen-sensitive disease, which can be pharmacologically controlled by androgen blockade. To date, a growing body of evidence showed that estrogen and estrogen receptors (ERs) could regulate prostate development, as well as cancer initiation and progression. This review will address the expression levels and function of ERs in different stages of PCa progression. The functions of ERs in different types of prostate cells, the ligand effect, and the potential applications of selective estrogen modulators (SERMs) will also be discussed. To further dissect ERs' roles in prostate development, cell type specific ER knockout mouse models were generated. Results collected from the prostate cell type-specific ERαKO mouse models provided new insights about the cell type specific ERα roles in prostate development prenatally and postnatally. The results of ERs' roles in mouse PCa mode and the correlation of ERs expression and biomedical outcome will also be discussed.