Estrogen receptor beta expression in human vascular tissues

Estrogens exhibit potent anti-atherogenic effects through mechanisms that may involve direct effects on the artery wall. The existence of the classical estrogen receptor (ERalpha) in vascular tissues has been established. Recently a new estrogen receptor (ERbeta) has been discovered that represents a distinct gene product with homology to the classical ERalpha. The purpose of this thesis was to explore the expression pattern of ERbeta, in normal and diseased arteries. My experimental data demonstrate that ERbeta mRNA is also expressed in human vascular tissue. Using semi-quantitative RT-PCR, there was no relative difference in ERbeta mRNA expression in paired human vascular tissue from normal and diseased arteries. Southern blot and Northern blot analyses, as well as sequencing, were used to confirm these results. We also studied ERbeta protein expression in the normal and diseased coronary arteries using immunohistochemisty. The results further confirm that ERbeta protein is also expressed in both normal and diseased coronary arteries.