Ontogeny of the estrogen receptor in the chick oviduct.

The distribution of estrogen receptor (ER) in the chick oviduct was studied immunohistochemically with monoclonal antibody H222, known to recognize chick ER [1]. The ontogeny of ER appeared to be very dependent on cellular differentiation. In the undifferentiated oviduct ER was located in the epithelial, mesothelial, stromal and smooth muscle cells. During differentiation ER disappeared from the surface epithelium, mesothelium, stromal and smooth muscle cells. At the onset of differentiation the protodifferentiated gland cells invaginated into the underlying stroma; these cells expressed ER. In the fully differentiated chick oviduct ER was located only in the tubular gland cells, which correlates with the known transcriptional activity of estrogen-induced ovalbumin-gene. However, we have reported estrogen dependency of PR also in ER-negative stromal cells, the mechanism being so far unknown. It is possible that there are mechanisms other than ER regulating the expression of PR. Estrogen-induced differentiation did not differ from normal maturation in regard to the distribution of ER. Since stromal, epithelial, mesothelial and smooth muscle cells were ER-negative in the mature oviduct, the concentration of ER, i.e. ER binding sites/cell is underestimated when whole tissue homogenates are used.