雌激素受体与脑肿瘤

Relationship between estrogen receptor and brain tumors

雌激素通过其受体对脑结构与功能具有重要的调节作用,如调节脑结构的性别差异、生殖行为、神经可塑性与学习记忆等。脑肿瘤是一种危害严重的肿瘤,研究表明肿瘤细胞表达的雌激素受体的种类、水平与脑肿瘤的生长过程相关。雌激素受体可通过直接作用或与部分其它受体相互作用,调控相关基因的转录,进而调节肿瘤的生长、增殖、转移、扩散以及凋亡等生理、生化过程。本文就雌激素受体在肿瘤细胞的表达水平、表达种类以及雌激素受体参与的信号通路做一简要综述。

Estrogens play important roles in the regulation of brain structure and function through their receptors, such as modulation of neural plasticity and learning and memory, etc. Brain tumors are one kind of the most dangerous tumors. Many studies have shown that the types and the expression levels of estrogen receptors expressed in brain tumor cells are related to the progression of brain tumors. Estrogen receptors can induce the transcription of target genes and therefore are involved in the regulation of the growth and prolifer- ation, metastasis and apoptosis of the tumor cells directly or indirectly by acting with some other receptors. In this review, we will first discuss the expression levels and species of estrogen receptors; then we will address the signal pathways in which the estrogen receptors are involved in the pathogenesis of brain tumors.