Cornil C A
Behavioral Neuroendocrinology Research Group, GIGA Neurosciences, University of Liège, Liège, Belgium.
J Neuroendocrinol. 2009 Mar;21(3):217-26. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2826.2009.01822.x. Epub 2009 Jan 15.
Besides their well-known genomic actions, oestrogens also exert effects through the activation of receptors associated with the plasma membrane that are too fast to be mediated by transcriptional activation (nongenomic effects). Although the existence of such rapid effects of oestrogens and their involvement in various biological processes are not in doubt, questions remain about the mechanisms responsible for the rapid modulations of oestrogen production that are required to sustain their nongenomic effects. Recent data indicate that the conversion of androgens into oestrogens in the brain by the enzyme aromatase can be rapidly modulated by conformational changes of the enzyme, thus providing a possible mechanism for rapid controls of the effects of oestrogens on male sexual behaviour. In this review, the data supporting this hypothesis are described. Subsequently, a few unanswered questions are discussed, such as the mechanism of oestrogen inactivation or the potential cellular sites of action of brain-derived oestrogens on male sexual behaviour.
除了其众所周知的基因组作用外，雌激素还通过激活与质膜相关的受体发挥作用，这些作用速度极快，无法由转录激活介导（非基因组效应）。尽管雌激素的这种快速作用及其在各种生物学过程中的参与是毋庸置疑的，但对于维持其非基因组效应所需的雌激素产生的快速调节机制仍存在疑问。最近的数据表明，大脑中芳香化酶将雄激素转化为雌激素的过程可通过该酶的构象变化而迅速调节，从而为快速控制雌激素对雄性性行为的影响提供了一种可能的机制。在这篇综述中，描述了支持这一假设的数据。随后，讨论了一些未解决的问题，例如雌激素失活的机制或脑源性雌激素对雄性性行为的潜在细胞作用位点。
