Estrogen receptor beta interacts and colocalizes with HADHB in mitochondria

Estrogen receptors are localized in mitochondria, but their functions in this organelle remain unclear. We previously found that ERα interacted with mitochondrial protein HADHB and affected the thiolytic cleavage activity of HADHB in β-oxidation. It is known that ERβ binds to ERα. In addition, ERβ is predominately located in mitochondria. These facts led us to speculate that ERβ may also be associated with HADHB in mitochondria. In order to test this hypothesis, we performed co-immunoprecipitation and confocal microscopy analyses with human breast cancer MCF7 cells. The results demonstrated that ERβ was indeed associated and colocalized with HADHB within mitochondria. Interestingly, in contrast to the stimulatory effect of ERα on HADHB enzyme activity observed in the previous study, silencing of ERβ enhanced the enzyme activity of HADHB in the present study, suggesting that ERβ plays an inhibitory role in HADHB enzyme activity in the breast cancer cells. Our results imply that ERα and ERβ may differentially affect cellular oxidative stress through influencing the rate of β-oxidation of fatty acids in breast cancer cells.