[Abstract]  [Full Text]  [PDF]

Sanhita Ray¹ and Sanjoy K. Das^1*

¹ Departments of Pediatrics and Cancer Biology, Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Nashville, TN 37232. USA.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed: Sanjoy K. Das, Division of Reproductive and Developmental Biology, D-4105 Medical Center North, Department of Pediatrics, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, 1161 21^st Avenue South. Nashville, TN 37232-2678. USA. Phone: 615-322-8644. Fax: 615-322-8397. Email: sanjoy.das@vanderbilt.edu

Biol. Proced. Online 2006;8:69-76. doi:10.1251/bpo120
Submitted: May 02, 2006; Accepted: July 12, 2006; Published: July 31, 2006.

Indexing terms: Chromatin; Immunoprecipitation; Estrogen Receptor Alpha.

Abbreviations: ChIP, chromatin immunoprecipitation; ERα, estrogen receptor-alpha; Ltf, lactoferrin; Pgr, progesterone receptor; Ccnd1, cyclin D1; IP, immunoprecipitation.

Chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) technique allows detection of proteins that bind to chromatin. While this technique has been applied extensively in cell-based studies, its tissue-based application remains poorly explored. We are specifically interested in examining estrogen-dependent transcriptional mechanism in respect of recruitment of estrogen receptor-alpha (ERα), a ligand-activated transcription factor, to uterine gene promoters in mice. Recent gene-array studies, utilizing ERα knock-out vs. wild-type mice, have revealed that estrogen regulates numerous uterine genes temporally and most importantly via ERα during the phase-II response, including three well characterized genes viz., lactoferrin (Ltf), progesterone receptor (Pgr) and cyclinD1 (Ccnd1). Here, utilizing systematic ChIP studies, we demonstrate endogenous recruitment of ERα to above uterine gene promoters following estradiol-17β (E₂) injection in mice.