The Protective Roles of Estrogen Receptor β in Renal Calcium Oxalate Crystal Formation via Reducing the Liver Oxalate Biosynthesis and Renal Oxidative Stress-Mediated Cell Injury

Figure 1

ERβ decreases oxalate biosynthesis via increasing AGT1 expression in hepatocytes. (a) Oxalate level measurement in culture media of two sets of HepG2 cells: (i) shLuc, shERα, and shERβ and (ii) vector, oeERα, and oeERβ. sh = small hairpin RNA; oe = overexpression. (b) The mRNA expressions of the enzymes AGT1, AGT2, and GO upon manipulation of the ERβ level in HepG2 cells. (c) Protein expressions of the enzymes AGT1 and AGT2 upon manipulation of the ERβ level in HepG2 cells. (d) ChIP assay results in HepG2 cells showed that overexpression of ERβ (b) increased the physical binding between ERβ and both ERE I and ERE II. (e). Wild-type or two ERE-mutant AGT1 promoter reporter constructs were cotransfected with pRL-TK at a ratio of 1000 : 1 into HepG2-vector and HepG2-oeERβ cells (left panel). Luciferase reporter assay was performed after 48 hr incubation (right panel). Data in (a), (b), and (e) are presented as , n.s: no significance. , , and .

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