Estrogen receptor alpha, a receptor that binds to the hormone estrogen, plays an important role in muscle regeneration in patients with Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), according to a study recently published in the Journal of Cachexia, Sarcopenia and Muscle.
Estrogen is a hormone that is best known for its role in the female reproductive system. However, estrogen receptors are also found in skeletal muscle. They exert a protective effect by alleviating inflammation and oxidative stress, thus supporting muscle regeneration.
The study’s authors sought to further investigate how estrogen receptor alpha can help facilitate muscle regeneration. To do so, they conducted a two-part study: one part involving muscle biopsies obtained from human patients, and another involving muscle samples from mice modified to have DMD-like conditions.
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The authors found that estrogen receptor alpha is upregulated both in human patients with DMD and in mice induced to have DMD-like conditions. They found that estrogen receptor alpha played a key role in skeletal muscle regeneration within muscle cells called myocytes.
To assess the role of estradiol (the main estrogen hormone in the body) in mice induced to have DMD-like conditions, researchers treated these mice with the hormone. They found that estradiol improved the function of skeletal muscles and reduced skeletal muscle atrophy, otherwise known as the shrinking or wasting away of the muscles. In addition, estradiol reduced muscle fiber loss.
To create the opposite conditions for comparison, researchers treated some mice with fulvestrant, an estrogen receptor antagonist. Mice treated with fulvestrant showed reduced estrogen receptor alpha levels; furthermore, they had reduced mature skeletal muscle fibers and a lack of muscle damage repair.
“The mechanisms of ERα [estrogen receptor alpha] and the modulators in skeletal muscle suggested that targeting the activation of ERα in myocyte could potentially offer therapeutic benefits for DMD, thereby presenting novel avenues for drug research targeting DMD,” the study’s authors wrote.
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