[Diverse expression of ER-α36, a novel variant of ER-α, in hippocampus and cortex of neonatal and adult rats].

ER-α36,a novel variant of ER-α,is expressed in breast,uterus,digestive tract,respiratory tract etc.The aim of the present study was to investigate the distribution and expression of ER-α36 in the central nervous system(CNS).Here,we comparatively analyzed the expression pattern of ER-α36 in the hippocampus and cortex of neonatal(1-day-old) and adult(12-week-old) Sprague-Dawley(SD) rats by using immunohistochemistry/immunocytochemistry analysis and Western blot.The results showed that ER-α36 was expressed both in hippocampus and cortex of adult rats,but mainly distributed in pyramidal neurons.ER-α36 was mainly located on the cytomembrane of hippocampal and cortical neurons from neonatal rats.Compared with the cortical neurons,the hippocampal neurons showed lower ER-α36 protein expression in the neonatal rats,but exhibited higher level of ER-α36 in the adult rats.Furthermore,the adult rats showed higher levels of ER-α36 expression in both hippocampus and cortex compared with the neonatal rats.These results suggest that ER-α36 might be involved in the regulation of membrane-initiated estrogen signaling throughout the postnatal development of diverse brain regions,and thus will be a potential target for the treatment of degenerative diseases in nervous system.