Estradiol Specific Binding by Endothelial Cells and its Limited Effect on Von Willebrand Factor Expression

It is known that women and men differ, and pre- and post-menopausal women differ in terms of vascular disease. When estrogen levels are increased during pregnancy and estrogen therapy, the levels of von Willebrand factor (vWf), which is produced by endothelial cells, have been found to be elevated. These facts have suggested that the endothelium may be an estrogen responsive tissue, and the vWf gene an estrogen responsive gene. In this study, cells derived from human umbilical vein endothelium were found to have messenger RNA for the estrogen receptor and high affinity estradiol-specific binding sites, which could potentially mediate estrogen responsiveness in this tissue. However, these cells showed no consistent increase in vWf mRNA, vWf antigen production, or vWf release in response to a wide range of estradiol concentrations in culture, as expected based on the previous literature. Correlations between estrogen and vWf levels in vivo may therefore involve secondary signals dependent on other cell types.