2004/11/29 by Qing Lu, David C. Pallas, Howard K. Surks +3 · 2 citations
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · Pharmacology, Toxicology and Pharmaceutics · #Estrogen and related hormone effects #Medicinal Plant Pharmacodynamics Research #Caveolin-1 and cellular processes
paper · doi:10.1073/pnas.0407492101
openalex publication_date 2004/11/29 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/01
Steroid hormone receptors (SHRs) are ligand-activated transcription factors that regulate gene expression. SHRs also mediate rapid, nongenomic cellular activation by steroids. In vascular endothelial cells, the SHR for estrogen, estrogen receptor (ER) alpha, is targeted by unknown mechanisms to a functional signaling module in membrane caveolae that enables estrogen to rapidly activate the mitogen-activated protein kinase and phosphatidylinositol 3-Akt kinase pathways, and endothelial NO synthase (eNOS). Here we identify the 110-kDa caveolin-binding protein striatin as the molecular anchor that localizes ERalpha to the membrane and organizes the ERalpha-eNOS membrane signaling complex. Striatin directly binds to amino acids 183-253 of ERalpha, targets ERalpha to the cell membrane, and serves as a scaffold for the formation of an ERalpha-Galphai complex. Disruption of complex formation between ERalpha and striatin blocks estrogen-induced rapid activation mitogen-activated protein kinase, Akt kinase, and eNOS, but has no effect on ER-dependent regulation of an estrogen response element-driven reporter plasmid. These findings identify striatin as a molecular scaffold required for rapid, nongenomic estrogen-mediated activation of downstream signaling pathways. Furthermore, by demonstrating independent regulation of nongenomic vs. genomic ER-dependent signaling, these findings provide conceptual support for the potential development of "pathway-specific" selective ER modulators.