Note to users. If you're seeing this message, it means that your browser cannot find this page's style/presentation instructions -- or possibly that you are using a browser that does not support current Web standards. Find out more about why this message is appearing, and what you can do to make your experience of our site the best it can be.

Site Tools

  • AAAS
  • Subscribe
  • Feedback

Site Search

Search Advanced

Science 15 February 1974:
Vol. 183. no. 4125, pp. 610 - 620
DOI: 10.1126/science.183.4125.610
Prev | Table of Contents | Next

Articles

Female Steroid Hormones and Target Cell Nuclei

The effects of steroid hormones on target cell nuclei are of major importance in the induction of new cell functions

Bert W. O'Malley 1 and Anthony R. Means 1

1 Department of cell biology Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas 77025

The data discussed herein demonstrate the great variation in target-tissue response that can occur after administration of steroid hormones. The female sex steroids can exert regulatory effects on the synthesis, activity, and possibly even the degradation of tissue enzymes and structural proteins. Each response, nevertheless, appears to be dependent on the synthesis of nuclear RNA. In many instances, the steroid actually promotes a qualitative change in the base composition and sequence of the RNA synthesized by the target cell, implying a specific effect on gene transcription. Most important is our direct quantitative evidence that sex steroids cause a net increase in the intracellular amounts of specific mRNA molecules in target tissues.

It thus appears that we are discovering a pattern of steroid hormone action which includes (Fig. 1): (i) uptake of the hormone by the target cell and binding to a specific cytoplasmic receptor protein; (ii) transport of the steroid-receptor complex to the nucleus; (iii) binding of this "active" complex to specific "acceptor" sites on the genome (chromatin DNA and acidic protein); (iv) activation of the transcriptional apparatus resulting in the appearance of new RNA species which includes specific mRNA's; (v) transport of the hormone-induced RNA to the cytoplasm resulting in synthesis of new proteins on cytoplasmic ribosomes; and (vi) the occurrence of the specific steroid-mediated "functional response" characteristic of that particular target tissue.

To elucidate fully the mechanism of steroid hormone action we must study the biochemistry of the process by which information held by the steroid hormone-receptor complex is transferred to the nuclear transcription apparatus. If our assumptions are correct, we should ultimately be able to discover how this hormone-receptor complex exerts a specific regulatory effect on nuclear RNA metabolism. Such regulation might be achieved (i) by direct effects on chromatin template leading to increased gene transcription and thus RNA synthesis; (ii) by activation of the polymerase complex itself; (iii) by inhibition of RNA breakdown; or (iv) by intranuclear processing of large precursor molecules so that smaller biologically active sequences are produced, and (v) by transport of RNA from the nucleus to the cytoplasmic sites of cellular protein synthesis.


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Progestin Receptor Subtypes in the Brain: The Known and the Unknown.
S. Mani (2008)
Endocrinology 149, 2750-2756
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Minireview: Neuronal Steroid Hormone Receptors: They're Not Just for Hormones Anymore.
J. D. Blaustein (2004)
Endocrinology 145, 1075-1081
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Steroid Receptor Interactions with Heat Shock Protein and Immunophilin Chaperones.
W. B. Pratt and D. O. Toft (1997)
Endocr. Rev. 18, 306-360
   Abstract »    Full Text »
The Psychoendocrinology of Menopause in Cross-Cultural Perspective.
D. A. Charney (1996)
Transcultural Psychiatry 33, 413-434
   Abstract »    PDF »
Use of Flurbiprofen to Inhibit Corneal Neovascularization.
C. A. Cooper, M. V. W. Bergamini, and I. H. Leopold (1980)
Arch Ophthalmol 98, 1102-1105
   Abstract »    PDF »
Local effect of the blastocyst on estrogen and progesterone receptors in the rat endometrium.
F Logeat, P Sartor, M. Hai, and E Milgrom (1980)
Science 207, 1083-1085
   Abstract »    PDF »
Distribution of RNA transcripts from structural and intervening sequences of the ovalbumin gene.
M. Tsai, S. Tsai, and B. O'Malley (1979)
Science 204, 314-316
   Abstract »    PDF »
Steroid Hormone Action: Recent Advances.
L. CHAN and B. W. O'MALLEY (1978)
Ann Intern Med 89, 694-701
   Abstract »    PDF »
Estrogenic activity of the insecticide kepone on the chicken oviduct.
R. Palmiter and E. Mulvihill (1978)
Science 201, 356-358
   Abstract »    PDF »
Regulation of Gene Expression in Chick Oviduct.
B. W. O'Malley, M.-J. Tsai, S. Y. Tsai, and H. C. Towle (1978)
Cold Spring Harb Symp Quant Biol 42, 605-615
   Abstract »    PDF »
Progesterone binding to hen oviduct genome: specific versus nonspecific binding.
T. Spelsberg, G. Pikler, and R. Webster (1976)
Science 194, 197-199
   Abstract »    PDF »
Characterization of the androgen receptor from a Syrian hamster ductus deferens tumor cell line (DDT1).
J. Norris and P. Kohler (1976)
Science 192, 898-900
   Abstract »    PDF »
Estrogen receptor in the mammalian liver.
A. Eisenfeld, R Aten, M Weinberger, G Haselbacher, K Halpern, and L Krakoff (1976)
Science 191, 862-865
   Abstract »    PDF »
Deoxycorticosterone-adenine interactions in a crystalline complex.
C. Weeks, D. Rohrer, and W. Duax (1975)
Science 190, 1096-1097
   Abstract »    PDF »


To Advertise     Find Products

Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)