title: [Estrogen receptor alpha and colocalization of Bcl-2 in hippocampus of Alzheimer's disease].
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To investigate the possible mechanism by which estrogen regulates apoptosis through the estrogen receptor.
  
  
  METHODS
  By means of fluorescence immunocytochemistry, the present study investigated the distribution of Bcl-2 and the colocolization of Bcl-2 and ERalpha immunoreactivity in the hippocampus of 10 Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients and 10 aged controls.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Bcl-2 immunoreactivity was widely distributed in neurons, concentrating predominantly on the subfields CA3 and CA4 in the stratum pyramidale of hippocampus both in controls and in AD patients. Bcl-2 staining in the labeled neuron was observed mainly in the cytoplasm and neuritic processes, but a few nuclei were also positive. Bcl-2 labeling was also detected in the astrocytes mainly in AD, but sparsely in controls. Double-labeled fluorescence immunocytochemistry showed that most Bcl-2-immunolabeled neurons also exhibited positive staining for ERalpha.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Estrogen may function as a regulator of apoptosis to modulate the expression of Bcl-2 in neurons and astrocytes in hippocampus of AD through ERalpha.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurobiology, Life Science School, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230027, China.
authors.forename: Mei
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Zeng
authors.forename: Ya-ping
authors.initials: YP
authors.lastname: Lu
authors.forename: Hao
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.forename: Jiang-ning
authors.initials: JN
authors.lastname: Zhou
mesh_terms: D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D017209:Apoptosis; D001253:Astrocytes / Q000378:metabolism; D047628:Estrogen Receptor alpha; D005260:Female; D006624:Hippocampus / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology; D006801:Humans; D009474:Neurons / Q000378:metabolism; D019253:Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-bcl-2 / Q000096:biosynthesis* / Q000235:genetics; D011960:Receptors, Estrogen / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism / Q000502:physiology
chemical_list: D047628:Estrogen Receptor alpha; D019253:Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-bcl-2; D011960:Receptors, Estrogen