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Review
. 2015 Dec 1;152(Pt B):431-7.
doi: 10.1016/j.physbeh.2015.05.032. Epub 2015 May 31.

Multiple estrogen receptor subtypes influence ingestive behavior in female rodents

Jessica Santollo  1 , Derek Daniels  2
Affiliations
Review

Multiple estrogen receptor subtypes influence ingestive behavior in female rodents

Jessica Santollo et al. Physiol Behav. .

Abstract

Postmenopausal women are at an increased risk of obesity and cardiovascular-related diseases. This is attributable, at least in part, to loss of the ovarian hormone estradiol, which inhibits food and fluid intake in humans and laboratory animal models. Although the hypophagic and anti-dipsogenic effects of estradiol have been well documented for decades, the precise mechanisms underlying these effects are not fully understood. An obvious step toward addressing this open question is identifying which estrogen receptor subtypes are involved and what intracellular processes are involved. This question, however, is complicated not only by the variety of estrogen receptor subtypes that exist, but also because many subtypes have multiple locations of action (i.e. in the nucleus or in the plasma membrane). This review will highlight our current understanding of the roles that specific estrogen receptor subtypes play in mediating estradiol's anorexigenic and anti-dipsogenic effects along with highlighting the many open questions that remain. This review will also describe recent work being performed by our laboratory aimed at answering these open questions.

Keywords: Estradiol; Food intake; Saline intake; Water intake.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Select brain structures that express ER subtypes and are involved in the effect of estrogens on ingestive behaviors. The ER subtype mRNA expressed in each area of rat brain is indicated by the color of the structure. SFO only expresses ERα (blue), whereas ERβ is the only ER subtype found in the DR (red). The MnPO, OVLT, mPOA, LH and ARC express both ERα and ERβ (purple). ERβ and GPER-1 are expressed in the PVN and SON (orange). ERα, ERβ and GPER-1 are expressed in the NTS (green).
Figure 2
Figure 2
Estrogens act through a diverse set of receptor subtypes. The ERα and ERβ subtypes are found in the nucleus of the cell, where they respond to estrogens to alter gene expression. After posttranslational modification, both ERα and ERβ are found associated with the plasma membrane, where they form a complex that includes caveolin and mGluR subtypes. Estrogens can also act at membrane-associated GPER-1, Gq-mER, and ER-X receptor subtypes, the latter of which is found embedded in caveolar-like microdomains. The membrane-associated receptors are able to exert rapid effects by interactions with ion channels, and slower effects through second messenger cascades that affect transcription.
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