Grant: Travel Awards - Institute Community Support

Estrogens typically act on cells through interactions with genes, a process which takes hours to days. However, more rapid actions have been identified and occur through activation of chemical signals (cell signaling cascades) within cells. The dentate gyrus, a region within the hippocampus, experiences a increase in cell proliferation (the creation of new cells) within 30 minutes of giving the estrogen 17beta-estradiol (E2) to female rats. Whether this is a result of cell signaling cascade activation and, if so, which cascades are involved remains unknown. In this experiment, we gave E2 to male and female rats and female rats with their ovaries removed. Thirty minutes later, these rats were sacrificed and their brains collected for protein analysis. Using a multiplex electrochemiluminescent reader, we measured levels of phosphorylated extracellular signal-regulated protein kinase (ERK), phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K), c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK), p38, Akt, glycogen synthase kinase 3 beta (GSK-3beta), and ribosomal protein S6 kinase (p70S6K) cell signaling proteins in the dentate gyrus. In this way, we can determine what pathways are rapidly activated by E2 and may be involved in the rapid effects of E2 on cell proliferation.