Expression and localization of estrogen receptor-beta in annulus cells of the human intervertebral disc and the mitogenic effect of 17-beta-estradiol in vitro.

Helen E Gruber,Jane Ingram,Timothy A Miller,Kelly Leslie,Dean Yamaguchi,Edward N Hanley,Weibiao Huang

doi:10.1186/1471-2474-3-4

Helen E Gruber, Jane Ingram + Show 5 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2474-3-4

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Abstract

BackgroundRecent evidence suggests that estrogens exert effects in different tissues throughout the body, and that the estrogen receptor β (ERβ) may be important for the action of estrogen (17-β-estradiol) on the skeleton. The cellular localization of ERβ in the human intervertebral disc, however, has not yet been explored.MethodsHuman disc tissue and cultured human disc cells were used for immunocytochemical localization of ERβ. mRNA was isolated from cultured human disc cells, and RT-PCR amplification of ERβ was employed to document molecular expression of this receptor. Cultured human disc cells were tested to determine if 17-β-estradiol stimulated cell proliferation.ResultsIn this report data are presented which provide evidence for ERβ gene expression in human intervertebral disc cells in vivo and in vitro. Culture of annulus cells in the presence of 10-7 M 17-β-estradiol significantly increased cell proliferation.ConclusionsThese data provide new insight into the biology of cells in the annulus of the intervertebral disc.

Highlights

Recent evidence suggests that estrogens exert effects in different tissues throughout the body, and that the estrogen receptor β (ERβ) may be important for the action of estrogen (17-β-estradiol) on the skeleton
Estrogen receptor-alpha is expressed in cells which are classic estrogen targets; estrogen receptor-β is a newly described receptor which has been found in cells of tissues which in the past might not have been traditionally viewed as estrogen targets, including cells in prostate, ovary, vascular cells, astrocytes, cells of the osteoblast lineage, osteoclasts, and articular chondrocytes [5,6,7,8,9]
Morphologic identification of ERβ in vivo and in vitro Localization of anti-ERβ antibodies in formalin-fixed, paraffin embedded disc specimens required antigen retrieval techniques; both cells and embedded tissues utilized an overnight incubation in primary antibody (Figure 1A and 2A)

Summary

Introduction

Recent evidence suggests that estrogens exert effects in different tissues throughout the body, and that the estrogen receptor β (ERβ) may be important for the action of estrogen (17-β-estradiol) on the skeleton. Estrogen receptor-alpha is expressed in cells which are classic estrogen targets; estrogen receptor-β is a newly described receptor which has been found in cells of tissues which in the past might not have been traditionally viewed as estrogen targets, including cells in prostate, ovary, vascular cells, astrocytes, cells of the osteoblast lineage, osteoclasts, and articular chondrocytes [5,6,7,8,9]. Since no previous work has addressed the question of whether intervertebral disc cells have estrogen receptor-β domains, the present work adds to this list cells found in the annulus of the human intervertebral disc and demonstrates a proliferative effect of 17-β-estradiol in vitro

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Conclusion