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. 2016 Feb 28;22(8):2475–2482. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v22.i8.2475

Figure 2.

Figure 2

Molecular mechanisms for the functions of estrogen receptors. Genomic pathway: Estrogen binding leads to dimerization of ERs, then ERs translocate into nucleus and interact with transcriptional co-activators and/or co-repressor and bind to genomic DNA at specific sequences known as estrogen response elements (EREs) to activate or repress the transcription of specific genes. Non-genomic signaling pathway: Membrane ERs interact with SRC/G protein and activate PI3K/Akt signaling. Both MAPK signaling initiated by binding of growth factors to receptor tyrosine kinases and PI3K/Akt signaling can modify cytosolic ERs, which may interact with other transcription factors and modulate the transcription of specific genes. GF: Growth factor; RTK: Receptor tyrosine kinase; GP: G proteins; CoA: Transcription co-activator; CoR: Transcription co-receptor; TFs: Transcription factors; MAPK: Mitogen activated protein kinase; PI3K: Phosphoinositide 3 kinase; ERs: Estrogen receptors.