ABSTRACT
The acquisition of the comprehension of the molecular details of estrogen activity in specific brain areas and cells is mandatory. From the biochemical point of view, estrogens are believed to signal to the target cells by different mechanisms. One is the "genomic" mechanism of action which involves the diffusion of the hormone across the neural cell membrane, binding of one or both of the two well-characterized intracellular receptors and activation of transcriptional regulation of target genes that ultimately results in protein synthesis. Neuroblastoma cells might be the ideal system to study the activity of estrogen receptor (ER) and its interactions with other neural-specific, accessory proteins because it is known that neural crest derivatives express ER. The biochemical analysis of the effects triggered by 17β-Estradiol (E2) in the SK-ER3 model system led to the identification of function of estrogens in apoptosis which had been unexpected.
