Estrogen-induced nongenomic calcium signaling inhibits lipopolysaccharide-stimulated tumor necrosis factor α production in macrophages.

Estrogen is traditionally thought to exert genomic actions through members of the nuclear receptor family. Here, we investigated the rapid nongenomic effects of 17β-estradiol (E2) on tumor necrosis factor α (TNF-α) production following lipopolysaccharide (LPS) stimulation in mouse bone marrow-derived macrophages (BMMs). We found that LPS induced TNF-α production in BMMs via phosphorylation of p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK). E2 itself did not affect the MAPK pathway, although it attenuated LPS-induced TNF-α production through suppression of p38 MAPK activation. Recently, G protein-coupled receptor 30 (GPR30) was suggested to be a membrane estrogen receptor (mER) that can mediate nongenomic estradiol signaling. We found that BMMs expressed both intracellular estrogen receptors (iER) and mER GPR30. The specific GPR30 antagonist G-15 significantly blocked effects of estradiol on LPS-induced TNF-α production, whereas an iER antagonist did not. Moreover, E2 induced a rapid rise in intracellular free Ca(2+) that was due to the influx of extracellular Ca(2+) and was not inhibited by an iER antagonist or silencing of iER. Ca(2+) influx was also induced by an impermeable E2 conjugated to BSA (E2-BSA), which has been used to investigate the nongenomic effects of estrogen. Consequently, Ca(2+), a pivotal factor in E2-stimulated nongenomic action, was identified as the key mediator. The inhibitory effects of E2 on LPS-induced TNF-α production and p38 MAPK phosphorylation were dependent on E2-triggered Ca(2+) influx because BAPTA, an intracellular Ca(2+) chelator, prevented these effects. Taken together, these data indicate that E2 can down-regulate LPS-induced TNF-α production via blockade of p38 MAPK phosphorylation through the mER-mediated nongenomic Ca(2+) signaling pathway in BMMs.