Effect of Sex Hormones on the Tissue Localization of Nuclear Estrogen Receptor Positively Stained Cells in
the Seminal Vesicle of Immature Castrated Rats
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HISAKO YUASA1, YOSHIHIRO
ONO1, YOSHITATSU
FUKABORI1, CHIKAKO
OHMA1, KEIJI SUZUKI2 and
HIDETOSHI YAMANAKA1
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1Department of Urology, Gunma University School of Medicine, Maebashi 371, and
2Department of Laboratory Sciences, Gunma University School of Health Sciences, Maebashi 371
We studied the changes in the tissue localization of nuclear estrogen receptor (ER) positively stained cells in
the seminal vesicle of immature castrated rats under various environmental conditions of sex hormones by
immunohistochemical methods. In castrated rats of 6 weeks of age, the percentage of nuclear ER positively
stained cells showed remarkable increase in the periglandular stroma region, but not in the epithelium and the
peripheral stroma region. Estrogen administration to castrated rats dramatically increased the percentage of
nuclear ER positively stained cells in both the epithelium and the peripheral stroma region, whereas cessation
of estrogen treatment caused a significant percentile decrease. These results suggest that the nuclear ER
expression in both the epithelial cells and the peripheral stromal cells seems to respond to estrogen. The
concomitant treatment of estradiol-17b (E2) with 5alpha-dihydrotestosterone (DHT) completely inhibited
these E2 mediated ER expression in the epithelium and the stroma. This result suggests that ER works only
when E2 is given in the absence of DHT in the seminal vesicle of immature castrated rats.
Key words---
seminal vesicle; estrogen receptor; estradiol; dihydrotestosterone
Tohoku J. Exp. Med., 1997, 181, 297-309
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