Endocrinology, Vol 109, 1463-1472, Copyright © 1981 by Endocrine Society

ARTICLES

A modulator which converts activated estrogen receptor to a biologically inactive aggregated form

Y Nishizawa, Y Maeda, K Noma, B Sato, K Matsumoto and Y Yamamura

The in vitro nuclear binding of rat uterine estrogen-receptor complexes has been studied. Heating cytosol from mature rat uterus at 25 C for various times in the presence of 0.15 M KCl resulted in a transient increase in nuclear binding activity, followed by irreversible loss of this activity. The molecular state of these complexes heated at 25 C in the presence of 0.15 M KCl was determined using Sephadex G-200 chromatography and sucrose density centrifugation at high ionic strength (0.4 M KCl). Gel filtration resulted in steroid-binding activity in the void volume. Sucrose density gradient analysis revealed a broad peak, ranging from approximately 5-20S. When cytosol was heated at 25 C in the presence of 10 mM molybdate to block the temperature- induced activation of receptor, nuclear binding ability was easily recovered by dialysis, while heating already activated estrogen receptor in the presence of 0.15 M KCl and 10 mM molybdate caused irreversible loss of nuclear binding ability. When cytosols prepared from immature rats (19-23 days old) were heated at 25 C in the presence of 0.15 M KCl, only a minimum loss of nuclear binding ability was shown. The radioactive peak in a high salt sucrose density gradient appeared almost exclusively in the 5S region. However, the addition of receptor-free mature uterine cytosol to estrogen-receptor complexes from immature rat uterus caused a marked loss of nuclear binding utility, with a resultant receptor aggregation, whereas rat liver cytosol had no effect on this reaction. Furthermore, heating liver glucocorticoid receptor did not cause a loss of nuclear binding ability even in the presence of receptor-free adult rat uterine cytosol. These observations suggest that there is a factor(s) in rat uterus which recognizes only activated estrogen receptor and induces receptor aggregation and a rapid loss of the nuclear binding ability of receptor in a KCl concentration- and temperature-dependent manner. Preliminary characterization indicates that this factor is macromolecular in nature and resistant to RNase and trypsin treatment, but labile at 100 C.