Estrogens regulate a diverse range of physiological processes and affect multiple tissues. Estrogen receptors (ERs) regulate transcription by binding to DNA at conserved estrogen response elements, and such elements have been used to report ER activity in cultured cells and in transgenic mice. We generated stable, transgenic zebrafish containing five consecutive elements upstream of a c-fos minimal promoter and green fluorescent protein (GFP) to visualize and quantify transcriptional activation in live larvae. Transgenic larvae show robust, dose-dependent estrogen-dependent fluorescent labeling in the liver, consistent with er gene expression, whereas ER antagonists inhibit GFP expression. The nonestrogenic steroids dexamethasone and progesterone fail to activate GFP, confirming ER selectivity. Natural and synthetic estrogens activated the transgene with varying potency, and two chemicals, genistein and bisphenol A, preferentially induce GFP expression in the heart. In adult fish, fluorescence was observed in estrogenic tissues such as the liver, ovary, pituitary gland, and brain. Individual estrogen-responsive neurons and their projections were visualized in the adult brain, and GFP-positive neurons increased in number after 17β-estradiol exposure. The transgenic estrogen-responsive zebrafish allow ER signaling to be monitored visually and serve as in vivo sentinels for detection of estrogenic compounds.

BACKGROUND & AIMS: Patients with cirrhosis are at high risk for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and often have increased serum levels of estrogen. It is not clear how estrogen promotes hepatic growth. We investigated the effects of estrogen on hepatocyte proliferation during zebrafish development, liver regeneration, and carcinogenesis. We also studied human hepatocytes and liver tissues. METHODS: Zebrafish were exposed to selective modifiers of estrogen signaling at larval and adult stages. Liver growth was assessed by gene expression, fluorescent imaging, and histologic analyses. We monitored liver regeneration after hepatocyte ablation and HCC development after administration of chemical carcinogens (dimethylbenzanthrazene). Proliferation of human hepatocytes was measured in a coculture system. We measured levels of G-protein–coupled estrogen receptor (GPER1) in HCC and nontumor liver tissues from 68 patients by immunohisto-chemistry. RESULTS: Exposure to 17β-estradiol (E2) increased proliferation of hepatocytes and liver volume and mass in larval and adult zebrafish. Chemical genetic and epistasis experiments showed that GPER1 mediates the effects of E2 via the phosphoinositide 3-kinase–protein kinase B–mechanistic target of rapamycin pathway:gper1-knockout and mtor-knockout zebrafish did not increase liver growth in response to E2. HCC samples from patients had increased levels of GPER1 compared with nontumor tissue samples; estrogen promoted proliferation of human primary hepatocytes. Estrogen accelerated hepatocarcinogenesis specifically in male zebrafish. Chemical inhibition or genetic loss of GPER1 significantly reduced tumor development in the zebrafish. CONCLUSIONS: In an analysis of zebrafish and human liver cells and tissues, we found GPER1 to be a hepatic estrogen sensor that regulates liver growth during development, regeneration, and tumorigenesis. Inhibitors of GPER1 might be developed for liver cancer prevention or treatment. TRANSCRIPT PROFILING: The accession number in the Gene Expression Omnibus is GSE92544.

Androgens act through the nuclear androgen receptor (AR) to regulate gonad differentiation and development. In mice, AR is necessary for spermatogenesis, testis development, and formation of external genitalia in males and oocyte maturation in females. However, the extent to which these phenotypes are conserved in nonmammalian vertebrates is not well understood. Here, we generate zebrafish with a mutation in the ar gene (aruab105/105) and examine the role of AR in sexual determination and gonad development. We found that zebrafish AR regulates male sexual determination, because the majority of aruab105/105 mutant embryos developed ovaries and displayed female secondary sexual characteristics. The small percentage of mutants that developed testes displayed female secondary sexual characteristics, exhibited structurally disorganized testes, and were unable to release or produce normal levels of sperm, demonstrating that AR is necessary for zebrafish testis development and fertility. In females, we found that AR regulates oocyte maturation and fecundity. The aruab105/105 mutant females developed ovaries filled primarily with immature stage I oocytes and few mature stage III oocytes. Two genes whose expression is enriched in wild-type ovaries compared with testes (cyp19a1a, foxl2a) were upregulated in ar mutant testes, and two genes enriched in testes (amh, dmrt1) were upregulated in ar mutant ovaries. These findings demonstrate that AR regulates sexual determination, testis development, and oocyte maturation and suggest that AR regulates sexually dimorphic gene expression. The ar mutant we developed will be useful for modeling human endocrine function in zebrafish.

Estrogen signaling is important for vertebrate embryonic development. Here we have used zebrafish (Danio rerio) as a vertebrate model to analyze estrogen signaling during development. Zebrafish embryos were exposed to 1 µM 17β-estradiol (E2) or vehicle from 3 hours to 4 days post fertilization (dpf), harvested at 1, 2, 3 and 4 dpf, and subjected to RNA extraction for transcriptome analysis using microarrays. Differentially expressed genes by E2-treatment were analyzed with hierarchical clustering followed by biological process and tissue enrichment analysis. Markedly distinct sets of genes were up and down-regulated by E2 at the four different time points. Among these genes, only the well-known estrogenic marker vtg1 was co-regulated at all time points. Despite this, the biological functional categories targeted by E2 were relatively similar throughout zebrafish development. According to knowledge-based tissue enrichment, estrogen responsive genes were clustered mainly in the liver, pancreas and brain. This was in line with the developmental dynamics of estrogen-target tissues that were visualized using transgenic zebrafish containing estrogen responsive elements driving the expression of GFP (Tg(5xERE:GFP)). Finally, the identified embryonic estrogen-responsive genes were compared to already published estrogen-responsive genes identified in male adult zebrafish (Gene Expression Omnibus database). The expressions of a few genes were co-regulated by E2 in both embryonic and adult zebrafish. These could potentially be used as estrogenic biomarkers for exposure to estrogens or estrogenic endocrine disruptors in zebrafish. In conclusion, our data suggests that estrogen effects on early embryonic zebrafish development are stage- and tissue- specific.