Miesfeld R L
Department of Biochemistry, University of Arizona Cancer Center, Tucson.
Am Rev Respir Dis. 1990 Feb;141(2 Pt 2):S11-7.
The recent isolation and characterization of steroid receptor coding sequences has revolutionized the field of steroid hormone action. These studies have revealed that steroid receptors are members of a much larger nuclear receptor "super family." The ligand and DNA binding domains have been shown to be molecular components that functionally interact to transform the steroid-receptor complex into a highly specific gene regulator that induces or represses the expression of cell-specific target genes. Molecular genetic approaches have been used to study structure-function relationships of several steroid receptor proteins, the most extensive analysis has been that of the glucocorticoid receptor. Several breakthroughs in the study of steroid hormone action include the construction of novel chimeric steroid receptor proteins, functional expression of steroid receptors in yeast, and the development of sensitive cloning techniques designed to isolate low abundance, hormonally regulated transcripts.
近期对类固醇受体编码序列的分离和特性鉴定彻底改变了类固醇激素作用领域。这些研究表明，类固醇受体是一个大得多的核受体“超家族”的成员。配体和DNA结合结构域已被证明是功能性相互作用的分子成分，可将类固醇-受体复合物转化为高度特异性的基因调节因子，诱导或抑制细胞特异性靶基因的表达。分子遗传学方法已被用于研究几种类固醇受体蛋白的结构-功能关系，其中对糖皮质激素受体的分析最为广泛。类固醇激素作用研究中的几个突破包括构建新型嵌合类固醇受体蛋白、在酵母中功能性表达类固醇受体，以及开发旨在分离低丰度、激素调节转录本的灵敏克隆技术。
