Estrogens: from classical endocrine action to tissue selective action.

Abstract

Beginning in the late 1950s into the 1970s the laboratories of El-wood Jensen and Jack Gorski proposed a model by which the inter-action of the receptor and 17s-estradiol (E2) are involved in transducing the cellular effects of this hormone (Jensen and DeSombre 1973; Toft and Gorski 1966). Their laboratories also performed the isolation and initial characterization of the estrogen receptor (ER; Jensen and DeSombre 1973; Toft and Gorski 1966). Since its initial discovery, significant progress has been made in understanding the mechanisms and manifestations of ER action; however, many new questions have emerged that make this area of research as exciting and interesting as it was 40 years ago.