Matsumoto A
Department of Anatomy, Juntendo University School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan.
Psychoneuroendocrinology. 1991;16(1-3):25-40. doi: 10.1016/0306-4530(91)90069-6.
Sex steroids exert potent influences on modulating neural development and neural circuit formation in both developing and adult sex steroid-sensitive neuroendocrine brain. During development, estrogen or aromatizable androgen can act as a neurotropic factor on neural tissues, stimulating axonal and dendritic growth and synapse formation. The development of sexual dimorphic synaptic organization may reflect sex steroid-modulating synaptogenesis in the hypothalamus and limbic system during the perinatal period. The onset of puberty also may be due, at least in part, to stimulation of synapse formation by estrogen in the hypothalamus. In adulthood, estrogen has a facilitatory effect on synapse formation in neural structures such as septum, hypothalamus and midbrain with or without brain lesions, and androgen plays a significant role in regulating synaptic remodeling in the androgen-sensitive spinal motoneuron pools. Thus, sex steroids seems to be critical from the developmental period to adulthood for organizing and reorganizing the neuronal circuitry driving neuroendocrine and behavioral functions.
性类固醇对发育中和成年期对性类固醇敏感的神经内分泌脑的神经发育和神经回路形成具有强大的调节作用。在发育过程中，雌激素或可芳香化的雄激素可作为神经组织的神经营养因子，刺激轴突和树突生长以及突触形成。性二态突触组织的发育可能反映了围产期下丘脑和边缘系统中性类固醇调节的突触发生。青春期的开始至少部分可能是由于下丘脑雌激素对突触形成的刺激。在成年期，雌激素对有或无脑损伤的神经结构（如隔区、下丘脑和中脑）中的突触形成具有促进作用，雄激素在调节雄激素敏感的脊髓运动神经元池中的突触重塑中起重要作用。因此，从发育期到成年期，性类固醇似乎对于组织和重组驱动神经内分泌和行为功能的神经回路至关重要。
