Advanced Search

Journal Navigation

Journal Home

Subscriptions

Archive

Contact Us

Table of Contents

SAGETRACK

Sign In to gain access to subscriptions and/or personal tools.
Journal of the Society for Gynecologic Investigation
This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow References
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Right arrow Citation Map
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to Saved Citations
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Right arrow Request Reprints
Right arrow Add to My Marked Citations
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Right arrow Citing Articles via Scopus
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Dietrich, W.
Right arrow Articles by Tschugguel, W.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Dietrich, W.
Right arrow Articles by Haitel, A.
Right arrow Articles by Holzer, G.
Right arrow Articles by Huber, J. C.
Right arrow Articles by Kolbus, A.
Right arrow Articles by Tschugguel, W.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Complore   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us   Add to Digg   Add to Reddit   Add to Technorati   Add to Twitter  
What's this?

Estrogen Receptor-ß Is the Predominant Estrogen Receptor Subtype in Normal Human Synovia

Wolf Dietrich, MD

Andrea Haitel, MD

Gerold Holzer, MD

Johannes C. Huber, MD, PhD

Andrea Kolbus, PhD

Department of obstetrics and Gynecology, Division of Gynecologic Endocrinology and Reproductive Medicine; Department of Clinical Pathology; Department of Orthopedics, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria

Walter Tschugguel, MD

Department of obstetrics and Gynecology, Division of Gynecologic Endocrinology and Reproductive Medicine; Department of Clinical Pathology; Department of Orthopedics, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria walter.tschugguel{at}meduniwien.at

Objective: Joint pain increases after menopause with more than 50% of woman suffering from arthralgies. Since pain and inflammation of joints originate from synovial tissue, we aimed to discover whether estrogen receptors are present in the human synovia.

Methods: This in vitro study was performed on samples of human synovial tissue, obtained from pre-(n = 8) and postmenopausal woman (n = 11) and men (n = 5) following surgery due to traumatic lesions. Fresh synovial tissue specimens were assessed for the localization as well as the presence of estrogen receptor-{alpha} (ER{alpha}) and estrogen receptor-ß (ERß) by means of immunohistochemistry, as well as Western blot and reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), respectively.

Results: ERß protein and mRNA were found to be equally and highly expressed in synovial stroma and lining cells of all explants independent of sex or menopausal status. In contrast, weak ER{alpha} staining was localized in the synovial lining cells in only three of 24 explants. ER{alpha} protein was found to be weakly expressed in three of ten explants. ER{alpha} mRNA was found with highly variable amounts in seven of ten explants.

Conclusion: In view of our observation that ERß but not ER{alpha} is expressed regularly in normal human synovia in high amounts, we propose that estrogen could play a significant role in synovial membrane function in women and men, operating preferably via the ERß isoform.

Key Words: Estrogen receptor alpha • estrogen receptor beta • synovia • climacteric joint pain • immunohistochemistry

Journal of the Society for Gynecologic Investigation, Vol. 13, No. 7, 512-517 (2006)
DOI: 10.1016/j.jsgi.2006.07.002
Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Complore Complore   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to Technorati Technorati   Add to Twitter Twitter    What's this?