Estrogen receptor beta agonism increases survival in experimentally induced sepsis and ameliorates the genomic sepsis signature: a pharmacogenomic study.

Background: Nonsteroidal agonists have been developed that selectively bind to and activate estrogen receptor beta (ERbeta) rather than estrogen receptor alpha (ERalpha). ERbeta is expressed equally in both male and female mammals in multiple extragonadal tissues. Work reported elsewhere has demonstrated that ERbeta agonists have beneficial effects in multiple (but not all) models of inflammatory diseases and also increase survival in experimentally induced sepsis.