Progesterone receptors - animal models and cell signaling in breast cancer: Role of steroid receptor coactivators and corepressors of progesterone receptors in breast cancer
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* Corresponding author: Zafar Nawaz zn029815@bcm.tmc.edu
Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas, USA
Breast Cancer Res 2002, 4:182-186 doi:10.1186/bcr449
Published: 28 June 2002Abstract
Progesterone, an ovarian steroid hormone, plays a key role in the development and function of the mammary gland, as it also does in the uterus and the ovary. The action of progesterone is mediated through its intracellular cognate receptor, the progesterone receptor (PR), which functions as a transcription factor that regulates gene expression. As with other nuclear receptors, coregulators (coactivators and corepressors) recruited by the liganded or unliganded PR, either to enhance or to suppress transcription activity, modulate the function of the PR. Mutation or aberrant expression of the coregulators might thus affect the normal function of the PR and hence disrupt the normal development of the mammary gland, which may lead to breast cancer.