Molecular Background of Estrogen Receptor Gene Expression in Endometriotic Cells

The molecular background of estrogen receptor (ER) expression is important to understand the pathophysiology of the high estrogen environment in endometriosis. However, the molecular details have not been fully understood. The objective of this study is to evaluate the molecular background of ERα and ERβ messenger RNA (mRNA) expression in endometriotic cells. The following summarizes our observations: (1) ERα mRNA expression in endometriotic cells was estimated to be approximately one-tenth of that in endometrial cells. (2) Three mRNAs, which include 3 different 5'-untranslated exons tagged to an open reading frame of wild-type ERα, were detected. (3) Expression of ERβ mRNA depends mostly on 0N promoter and includes 2 open reading frames: one for a wild-type ERβ1 and another for a splice variant ERβ2. (4) Expression of ERβ1 mRNA was approximately 40-fold higher than that in endometrial cells. (5) Expression of ERβ2 mRNA was almost at a comparable level of the ERβ1. 9 (6) ERα and ERβ mRNAs are equivalently expressed in endometriotic cells. These observations show the molecular background of ER mRNA expression in endometriotic cells and provide a clue to further understanding the estrogen-dependent pathophysiology leading to clinical application in endometriosis.