Project description:Estrogen plays an important role in the regulation of vascular tone and in the pathophysiology of cardiovascular disease. Physiological effects of estrogen are mediated through estrogen receptors alpha (ERalpha) and beta (ERbeta), which are both expressed in vascular smooth muscle and endothelial cells. However, the molecular pathways mediating estrogen effects in blood vessels are not well defined. We have performed gene expression profiling in the mouse aorta to identify comprehensive gene sets the expression of which is regulated by long-term (1 wk) estrogen treatment. The ER subtype dependence of the alterations in gene expression was characterized by parallel gene expression profiling experiments in ERalpha-deficient [ERalpha knockout (ERalphaKO)] and ERbeta-deficient (ERbetaKO) mice. Importantly, these data revealed that ERalpha- and ERbeta-dependent pathways regulate distinct and largely nonoverlapping sets of genes. Whereas ERalpha is essential for most of the estrogen-mediated increase in gene expression in wild-type aortas, ERbeta mediates the large majority of estrogen-mediated decreases in gene expression. Biological functions of the estrogen-regulated genes include extracellular matrix synthesis, in addition to electron transport in the mitochondrion and reactive oxygen species pathways. Of note, the estrogen/ERbeta pathway mediates down-regulation of mRNAs for nuclear-encoded subunits in each of the major complexes of the mitochondrial respiratory chain. Several estrogen-regulated genes also encode transcription factors. Overall, these findings provide a foundation for understanding the molecular basis for estrogen effects on vasculature gene expression. Experiment Overall Design: Six estrogen receptor alpha knockout (ERaKO) and six estrogen receptor beta knockout (ERbKO) mice and ten of their wild-type littermates (all female, 2.5-4.5 months of age) were ovarioectomized. Half the mice from each genotype were implanted with 17beta-estradiol pellets, the other half with placebo pellets. After 7-8 days of estrogen/placebo treatment, aortas were harvested, total RNAs were purified for Affymetrix GeneChip microarray analysis, without pooling. This experiment consists of 6 groups with 3 (ERaKO and ERbKO) or 5 (WT) biological replicates per group, for a total of 22 samples.

Project description:This dataset is part of the manuscript titled "The metabolic regulator ERRalpha, a downstream target of HER2/IGF1, as a therapeutic target in breast cancer" (in review). The expression data obtained in human mammary epithelial cells were used to generate a list of ERRalpha-regulated genes that was later refined in clinical breast cancer datasets to generate a clinically relevant signature of ERalpha activity (referred to as Cluster 3 signature). Using this signature of the estrogen-related receptor alpha (ERRa) to profile more than eight-hundred breast tumors, we found that patients with tumors exhibiting higher ERRa activity were predicted to have shorter disease free survival. Further, the ability of an ERRa antagonist, XCT790, to inhibit breast cancer cell proliferation correlates with the cellâs intrinsic ERRa activity. These findings highlight the potential of using the ERRa signature and antagonists in targeted therapy for breast cancer. Using a chemical genomic approach we determined that activation of the HER2/IGF1 signaling pathways upregulates the expression of PGC-1b, an obligate cofactor for ERRa activity. Knockdown of PGC-1b in HER2 positive breast cancer cells impaired ERRa signaling and reduced cell proliferation, implicating a functional role of PGC1b/ERRa in the pathogenesis HER2 positive breast cancer. Primary human mammary epithelial cells were a gift from Dr. J. Marks (Duke University, Durham, NC) and cultured in MEBM (Cambrex, East Rutherford, NJ) with MEGM bullet kit and supplemented with 5mg/ml transferrin and 10-5M isoproterenol. To generate ERR-alpha signature, hMECs were serum starved for 36h followed by infection with MOI=150 of adenoviruses expressing two variants of PGC1alpha, a protein ligand for ERRalpha: PGC-1alpha2x9 or PGC-1alpha L2L3M. PGC-1-2x9 is specific to ERRalpha, while PGC-1-L2L3M lacks the NR box and does not interact with ERRalpha or other nuclear receptors. The generation and purification of variant PGC-1alpha viruses were described previously (Gaillard et al., Molecular Cell 24:5, 2006). Comparable expression levels of the two PGC-1alpha variants were verified by Western immonoblot analysis (data not shown). RNA was collect 16h after infection and purified using RNeasy mini kit (Qiagen, Valencia, CA). Ten independent biological replicates from each virus infection were collected.

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Homo sapiens

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