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Horm Metab Res 2013; 45(07): 490-494
DOI: 10.1055/s-0033-1337932
Original Basic
© Georg Thieme Verlag KG Stuttgart · New York

Tibolone Induces Serotonin, Estrogen, and Progesterone Receptor Expression but not Contractile Response to Serotonin in the Rat Uterus

M. Oropeza   *
1   Instituto Mexicano del Seguro Social, Unidad de Investigacion Medica en Farmacologia, Mexico DF
,
C. Calzada   *
2   Instituto Politecnico Nacional, Escuela Superior de Medicina, Mexico DF
,
C. Guerra-Araiza
1   Instituto Mexicano del Seguro Social, Unidad de Investigacion Medica en Farmacologia, Mexico DF
,
B. Bazan-Perkins
3   Instituto Nacional de Enfermedades Respiratorias, Hiperreactividad Bronquial, Mexico DF
,
J. A. Mendoza-Espinoza
4   Colegio de Ciencia y Tecnología Iztapalapa, Universidad Autonoma de la Ciudad de Mexico, Mexico DF
,
M. G. Campos-Lara
1   Instituto Mexicano del Seguro Social, Unidad de Investigacion Medica en Farmacologia, Mexico DF
› Author Affiliations
Further Information

Publication History

received 06 September 2012

accepted 12 February 2013

Publication Date:
03 April 2013 (online)

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Abstract

Most studies on the effect of tibolone on the uterus have focused on the endometrium dismissing the importance of the myometrium. The aim of the present study was to investigate some estrogen-like actions of tibolone in the uterus assessed by: 1) the expression of estrogen, progesterone, and serotonin receptors, and 2) the myometrial contraction induced by serotonin. Estradiol (250 μg), progesterone (50 mg), or testosterone (25 mg) pellets were implanted to ovariectomized rats. Tibolone (0.5 mg/day) was orally administered. An implanted pellet containing vehicle or an equivalent volume of water p.o., were used as controls. Sixty days after beginning the treatments, rats were killed and uterus removed. One horn was processed to evaluate estrogen-alpha, progesterone A and B, and serotonin-2A receptors expression, and the other one was used for studying contraction to serotonin and 60 mM potassium solution. The present data showed that tibolone-induced expression of estrogen, progesterone, and serotonin receptors, but did not induce uterine contractile response to either serotonin or potassium solution. These findings suggest that, in the uterus, tibolone may exert molecular estrogenic actions such as the induction of receptor expression, but not a physiological response as the estrogen-dependent contraction to serotonin.

Key words

tibolone - serotonin - estrogenic actions - myometrial response - receptor expression
*

* These authors contributed equally to this work.


 

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