Year: 2007
Type: article
Abstract: Distinctive sex diff erences in reproductive behavior and physiology have been attributed not to diff erences\nin hormones gonad secretes in each sex but differences in particular brain structures. Interestingly enough, brain\nsex difference is determined mostly by gonadal hormones during ontogeny independent of genetic sex. In many\nlaboratory mammals, brain sex can be manipulated at a particular stage of ontogeny called critical period for brain sex\ndiff erentiation, by endocrine treatments. Thus, neonatal orchidectomy or administration of gonadal hormones to female\npups reverses brain sex phenotype which culminates in sex-specifi c functions. The early, transient exposure to gonadal\nhormones or its absence leaves indelible marks on brain phenotype. This organizing action of gonadal hormones,\ncombined with activational action of the hormones after puberty, accomplishes sex specific functions. Brain would\nundergo sex diff erentiation through neurogenesis, migration, or survival in addition to regulation of ion channels and\nother functional molecule. Two distinct structures, the sexually dimorphic nucleus of the preoptic area, which is larger\nin male rats than in males and the anteroventral periventricular nucleus, which furnish opposite characteristics, will\nprovide good opportunity to understand the mechanism of brain sex diff erentiation.
Author: Yasuo Sakuma
Institution: Nippon Medical School
Language: English
Subfield: Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: green
Awards: G1023146117, Elucidation of the multifunctional signaling of estrogen using the visualization of estrogen responsible neurons, Analysis of the region specific regulation of estrogen receptor a and β gene expression in the rat brain, 神経活動依存的逆行性標識による性腺刺激ホルモン排卵性大量分泌中枢の特定, Identification of Molecular Mechanisms of Estrogen-Regulated Brain Sex Differentiation
OpenAlex ID: W97014284