HUMAN UMBILICAL VEIN ENDOTHELIAL-CELLS LACK EXPRESSION OF THE ESTROGEN-RECEPTOR

Estrogens may influence the expression of various cytokines, adhesion molecules, von Willebrand factor and prostacyclin produced by endothel ial cells. However, reports concerning expression of the estrogen rece ptor in endothelial cells are controversial. Primary human umbilical v ein endothelial cells (HUV-EC), the non continuous human umbilical vei n endothelial cell line HUV-EC-C (ATCC CRL 1730) and endothelial cells from 10 frozen umbilical cords were analyzed for the expression of th e estrogen receptor. Immunological studies using estrogen receptor spe cific antibodies failed to detect the expression of the receptor in al l human umbilical vein endothelial cells tested. No estrogen receptor transcripts were found in primary HUV-EC or HUV-EC-C by reverse transc riptase-polymerase chain reaction. Weak hybridization signals were det ected when the PCR amplicons were hybridized with estrogen receptor cD NA sequences as a probe, In vitro protein-DNA interaction studies reve aled no complexes between a fully consensus estrogen response element and HUV-EC-C extracts. Finally, transient transfection studies in HUV- EC-C could not demonstrate 17 beta-estradiol.induced transcription of the beta-galactosidase reporter gene linked to a consensus estrogen re sponse element. These observations suggest that human umbilical vein e ndothelial cells lack the estrogen receptor.