Estradiol and tamoxifen interaction at receptor sites at 37 C.

Mature rat uterine cytosol was pretreated with dextran-coated charcoal at 0 C for 2 h. This renders the subsequently formed estradiol-receptor complex thermostable at 37 C and also uncovers antiestrogen binding sites, possibly by removing an endogenous ligand. A sharp distinction is found between tamoxifen and estradiol as receptor ligands in pretreated cytosols in that tamoxifen will inhibit estradiol binding, on incubation at 37 C, only if dithiothreitol (DTT) had been included in the pretreatment solution. The presence of tamoxifen as the sole ligand in cytosol pretreated in the presence of DTT does not protect the estradiol receptor from thermal inactivation and following 37 C incubation tamoxifen is found bound exclusively to antiestrogen binding sites. Incubating the cytosol at 37 C with an equimolar mixture of estradiol and tamoxifen results in a very large increase in receptor-bound estradiol. This effect is attributed to the presence of tamoxifen complexed with antiestrogen sites. Tamoxifen in such equimolar ligand mixture binds to antiestrogen sites and is excluded from receptor sites by the estradiol, whose affinity for these sites is much greater than that of tamoxifen.