Estrogen Signaling

Estrogen receptors (ERs) are steroid hormone receptors important in development, growth, and reproduction. The 2 well characterized ERs, alpha and beta, interact with a variety of receptor coregulators. These coregulators bind and direct the ERs to specific promoters, varying the ER target genes transcribed to modulate signaling responses. ERs play a large role in cancers of the female reproductive system, especially breast cancer. ER positive breast cancers can be treated with antiestrogen therapy, often yielding an improved prognosis. These types of treatments use selective estrogen receptor modulators to diminish side effects on other organs expressing estrogen receptors. In addition, estrogen signaling plays a role in other pathophysiological conditions such as osteoporosis and obesity. The mechanisms of estrogen receptor signaling are not entirely understood since there are many coregulators as well as a myriad of target genes.

QIAGEN provides a broad range of assay technologies for estrogen signaling research that enables analysis of gene expression and regulation, epigenetic modification, genotyping, and signal transduction pathway activation. Solutions optimized for estrogen signaling studies include PCR array, miRNA, siRNA, mutation analysis, pathway reporter, chromatin IP, DNA methylation, and protein expression products.