A Role for Estrogen in Schizophrenia: Clinical and Preclinical Findings

Figure 1

Putative mechanisms of estrogen action in the cell. Estrogen can act via either genomic or nongenomic mechanisms. Genomic mechanisms involve activation of the estrogen receptors (ERs) by estrogen, which then translocate to the cell nucleus as hetero- or homodimers to bind to estrogen response elements (EREs) or to activator protein 1 (AP-1) sites, resulting in transcription activation. Nongenomic actions occur via binding of estrogen to ERs or to a G protein coupled receptor GPR30, either intracellularly or at the plasma membrane (mERs) to activate second messenger systems, such as those involving mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) or cyclic adenosine 3′,5′-monophosphate (cAMP) pathways, which can also activate transcription or have other effects.