POTENTIAL INTERACTIONS BETWEEN ESTROGEN-RECEPTOR AND THYROID RECEPTORS RELEVANT FOR NEUROENDOCRINE SYSTEMS

Environmental signals can profoundly affect reproductive behavior, phy siology and responses to steroids. One consequence of nutritional or t emperature stress is altered plasma concentrations of thyroid hormone. Recent in vivo and in vitro data indicate that manipulations of estro gen and thyroid hormone levels can alter each other's functions. One p ossible mechanism for interaction may be that thyroid and estrogen rec eptors bind to parts of the same hormone response elements of target g enes and compete with each other, thus serving to integrate environmen tal signals with neuroendocrine responses.