Environmental estrogens differentially engage the histone methyltransferase EZH2 to increase risk of uterine tumorigenesis.

ABSTRACT: Environmental exposures during sensitive windows of development can reprogram normal physiologic responses and alter disease susceptibility later in life in a process known as developmental reprogramming. For example, exposure to the xenoestrogen diethylstilbestrol during reproductive tract development can reprogram estrogen-responsive gene expression in the myometrium, resulting in hyperresponsiveness to hormone in the adult uterus and promotion of hormone-dependent uterine leiomyoma. We show here that the environmental estrogens genistein, a soy phytoestrogen, and the plasticizer bisphenol A, differ in their pattern of developmental reprogramming and promotion of tumorigenesis (leiomyomas) in the uterus. Whereas both genistein and bisphenol A induce genomic estrogen receptor (ER) signali

SUBMITTER: Greathouse KL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3879949 | biostudies-literature | 2012 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature