McCarthy M M, Schwarz J M, Wright C L, Dean S L
Department of Physiology and Program in Neuroscience, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA.
J Neuroendocrinol. 2008 Jun;20(6):777-83. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2826.2008.01723.x.
The brain has been known to be a sensitive target organ for the permanent organisational effects of gonadal steroids for close to 50 years. Recent advances have revealed a variety of unexpected cellular mechanisms by which steroids impact on the synaptic profile of hypothalamic nuclei critical to the control of reproduction. This review focuses on three in particular: 1) prostaglandins in the masculinisation of the preoptic area and control of male sexual behaviour; 2) GABA in the arcuate nucleus and potential control of the anterior pituitary; and 3) non-genomic activation of phosphotydolinositol 3 (PI3) kinase and glutamate in the ventromedial nucleus, which is relevant to the control of female reproductive behaviour. The importance of cell-to-cell communication, be it between neurones or between neurones and astrocytes, is highlighted as an essential principle for expanding the impact of steroids beyond those cells that express nuclear receptors.
近50年来，人们一直认为大脑是性腺类固醇产生永久性组织效应的敏感靶器官。最近的进展揭示了多种意想不到的细胞机制，类固醇通过这些机制影响对生殖控制至关重要的下丘脑核的突触结构。本综述特别关注以下三个方面：1）前列腺素在视前区男性化和雄性性行为控制中的作用；2）弓状核中的γ-氨基丁酸（GABA）及其对垂体前叶的潜在控制；3）腹内侧核中磷脂酰肌醇3（PI3）激酶和谷氨酸的非基因组激活，这与雌性生殖行为的控制有关。细胞间通讯的重要性，无论是在神经元之间还是在神经元与星形胶质细胞之间，都被强调为扩大类固醇对那些表达核受体的细胞之外的影响的基本原则。
