Akt stabilizes estrogen receptor alpha with the concomitant reduction in its transcriptional activity.

We have investigated the effect of Akt on estrogen receptor (ER) alpha protein level and its transcriptional activity. Transient transfection studies revealed that constitutively active Akt1 up-regulated ERalpha at the post-transcriptional level. Studies using Akt inhibitor and dominant-negative Akt1 showed that Akt1 kinase activity is required for the up-regulation of ERalpha. Cycloheximide decay assays and studies with proteasome inhibitor indicated that Akt1-mediated up-regulation of ERalpha was maintained by inhibiting proteasome-mediated degradation of ERalpha. When Akt consensus phosphorylation site mutant, ERalphaS167A was tested for Akt1-mediated up-regulation, increase of ERalphaS167A by Akt1 was significantly impaired as compared to wild type ERalpha. In addition, dominant-negative glycogen synthase kinase (GSK) 3beta and LiCl could also partially up-regulate ERalpha protein level, suggesting that concerted action of Akt1-mediated phosphorylation on S167 and kinase activity of Akt-downstream GSK3beta could affect ERalpha protein level. Paradoxically, co-expression of Akt1 could down-regulate transcriptional activity of ERalpha. The inhibitory effect of Akt1 on ERalpha transcriptional activity was not attributable to changes in subcellular distribution of ERalpha. Transfection studies using increasing amount of Akt1 and ERalpha indicated that the transcriptional activity of ERalpha was negatively regulated by ERalpha protein quantities at higher ERalpha concentrations. Chromatin immunoprecipitation assays revealed that at Akt1 concentration high enough to induce up-regulation of ERalpha, association of ERalpha to promoter region of ERalpha target pS2 gene was impaired. Taken together, these data suggest that Akt1 could increase ERalpha protein level with simultaneous reduction in its transcriptional activity, possibly by modulating association of ERalpha to the target gene promoters.