Analysis of Musculoskeletal Systems and Their Diseases. Sex hormone receptors dependent gene expression mechanisms in locomotive tissues

: There are large sex differences in the prevalence of locomotive diseases such as osteoporosis and osteoarthritis. Given that the onset of diseases is the failure of homeostasis, there might be a sex difference in the maintenance of homeostasis of locomotive organs/tissues. The factors of sex differences consist of sex chromosomes and sex hormones. Because the majority of locomotive diseases were occurred in the elderly people, the deficiency of sex hormones might play a role in pathogenesis of locomotive diseases. Sex hormones exert their functions by binding with their own specific nuclear receptors, which regulate transcription of the target genes in the target tissues. In this chapter, the transcriptional regulation by sex hormone receptors in bone and muscle will be discussed based on the reports about the mice lacking sex hormone receptor (s).