Complete knockout of estrogen receptor alpha is not directly protective in murine lupus.

ABSTRACT: Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a chronic and potentially severe autoimmune disease that disproportionately affects women. Despite a known role for hormonal factors impacting autoimmunity and disease pathogenesis, the specific mechanisms of action remain poorly understood. Our laboratory previously backcrossed "estrogen receptor alpha knockout (ERαKO)" mice onto the NZM2410 lupus prone background to generate NZM/ERαKO mice. This original ERαKO mouse, developed in the mid-1990s and utilized in hundreds of published studies, is not in fact ERα null. They express an N-terminally truncated ERα, and are considered a functional KO. They have physiologic deficiencies including infertility due to disruption of a critical activation domain (AF-1) at the N terminus of ERα, required for most cl

SUBMITTER: Scott JL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6261466 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature