In diabetes, the death of insulin-producing -cells by apoptosis leads to insulin deficiency. The lower prevalence of diabetes in females suggests that female sex steroids protect from -cell injury. Consistent with this hypothesis, 17-estradiol (estradiol) manifests antidiabetic actions in humans and rodents. In addition, estradiol has antiapoptotic actions in cells that are mediated by the estrogen receptor-a (ER␣), raising the prospect that estradiol antidiabetic function may be due, in part, to a protection of -cell apoptosis via ER␣. To address this question, we have used mice that were rendered estradiol-deficient or estradiol-resistant by targeted disruption of aromatase (ArKO) or ER␣ (␣ERKO) respectively. We show here that in both genders, ArKO ؊/؊ mice are vulnerable to -cell apoptosis and prone to insulin-deficient diabetes after exposure to acute oxidative stress with streptozotocin. In these mice, estradiol treatment rescues streptozotocin-induced -cell apoptosis, helps sustain insulin production, and prevents diabetes. In vitro, in mouse pancreatic islets and -cells exposed to oxidative stress, estradiol prevents apoptosis and protects insulin secretion. Estradiol protection is partially lost in -cells and islets treated with an ER␣ antagonist and in ␣ERKO islets. Accordingly, ␣ERKO mice are no longer protected by estradiol and display a gender nonspecific susceptibility to oxidative injury, precipitating -cell apoptosis and insulin-deficient diabetes. Finally, the predisposition to insulin deficiency can be mimicked in WT mice by pharmacological inhibition of ER␣ by using the antagonist tamoxifen. This study demonstrates that estradiol, acting, at least in part, through ER␣, protects -cells from oxidative injury and prevents diabetes in mice of both genders.estradiol ͉ oxidative stress