The 90 kDa heat-shock protein (hsp90) modulates the binding of the oestrogen receptor to its cognate DNA

The role of heat-shock protein 90 (hsp90) in the regulation of the oestrogen receptor (ER) function is less well understood than for other steroid-hormone receptors because hsp90 is not involved in the stabilization or induction of a high-affinity ligand-binding state of ER nor in the inhibition of receptor dimerization. Electrophoretic mobility-shift assays, using purified ER and hsp90, were employed to investigate directly the effect of hsp90 on the ability of ER to bind to the oestrogen-response element (ERE) from the vitellogenin A2 gene. Contrary to models in which hsp90 binds to and passively inactivates steroid-hormone receptors, our studies show that the binding of ER to ERE is inversely dependent on the relative concentration of hsp90. Exposure of purified ER-hsp90 complexes to ERE led to the dissociation of hsp90 and concomitant specific binding of ER to ERE. We demonstrate that the amount of ER-ERE complex decreased with increasing concentrations of hsp90. Furthermore hsp90 dissociated preformed high-affinity ER-ERE complexes. Kinetic dissociation experiments indicate the hsp90 acts in a dynamic and specific process rather than by simple trapping of ER owing to its inherent off-rate. The receptor released from the ERE-bound state by hsp90 was recovered associated with hsp90 and was able to rebind to ERE. These results indicate that hsp90 does not suppress ER function merely by steric hindrance. On the basis of these results and others, we propose that, in vivo, hsp90 may play a dual role in ER function: (i) at a physiological temperature, hsp90 stabilizes an active form of the receptor in accordance with its general molecular chaperone role; (ii) at elevated temperatures or under other environmental stress, the increased cellular concentration of hsp90 negatively interferes with ER-dependent transcription, in accordance with the inhibition of gene transcription attributed to hsp90 after heat shock.