Impaired Binding of Estradiol to Vaginal Mucosal Cells in Postmenopausal Osteoporosis

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Estrogen binding to vaginal mucosa (an easily accessible estrogen-sensitive tissue) was studied in 20 osteoporotic women and in 20 normal postmenopausal women. Mean age, years since menopause, and serum levels of estrogen, luteinizing hormone, and follicle-stimulating hormone did not differ significantly between the groups. Binding of tritiated-estradiol to vaginal epithelial cells was assessed by quantitative autoradiography and corrected for nonspecific binding by pretreatment of duplicate samples with an excess of unlabeled estrogen to saturated binding sites. Results (mean ± SE) expressed as counts/cell showed that binding was significantly less (p < 0.001) in the osteoporotic women (44.1 ± 4.0) than in the normal postmenopausal women (153.3 ± 39.3). Assuming that the quantity of estrogen receptors in bone paralleled those in vaginal cells, the data suggest that a defect in specific estrogen receptors including bone may be one of the fundamental abnormalities responsible for postmenopausal osteoporosis.

This publication has 2 references indexed in Scilit: