Majdic Gregor
Center for Animal Genomics, Veterinary Faculty, University of Ljubljana, Gerbiceva 60, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia.
Slov Vet Zb. 2009 Sep 1;46(3):85-91.
In 1959, exactly 50 years ago, was published a paper by Phoenix, Goy, Gerall and Young entitled "Organizing action of prenatally administered testosterone propionate on the tissues mediating mating behavior in the female guinea pig". Before the publication of this paper, it was widely accepted that hormones do act upon brain. However, the general thought was that hormones, especially sex steroid hormones, directly activate certain brain areas when needed, i.e. at the time of mating, parental care etc. In contrast to this thought, Phoenix and colleagues for the very first time proposed that hormone action in neonatal period could also permanently alter brain structure, and thus influence differences in behavior long after exposure to sex steroid hormones. The study of Phoenix and colleagues was therefore revolutionary, and as such, had many opponents at that time. Even the authors themselves were very cautious in their phrasing, never directly claiming that hormones could alter brain structure but rather even in the title used the words "tissues mediating mating behavior" instead of brain or central nervous system. Furthermore, as with many such revolutionary studies, study by Phoenix and colleagues left more questions unanswered than it did answer. The authors did and could not know at that time exactly where and how do steroid hormones act in the brain, they did not know whether observed effects in their study arose from the direct action of testosterone or perhaps from some testosterone metabolite. In half of the century since the publication of this seminal study, hundreds of papers have been published, confirming initial finding of Phoenix and colleagues, and these papers have provided answers to many questions raised by the authors. Today we know that at least in rodents, it is testosterone metabolite estradiol that masculinizes the brain. We know that brain structure could be altered by hormones in different periods including puberty and probably even in adult life. We know many locations in the brain where sex steroid hormones act to cause permanent structural changes. Nevertheless, the study of Phoenix, Goy, Gerall and Young still stands strong even after 50 years, confirming the revolutionary importance of their finding.
1959年，也就是整整50年前，菲尼克斯、戈伊、杰拉尔和扬发表了一篇题为《产前注射丙酸睾酮对雌性豚鼠介导交配行为的组织的组织化作用》的论文。在这篇论文发表之前，激素作用于大脑这一观点已被广泛接受。然而，当时的普遍看法是，激素，尤其是性类固醇激素，在需要时，即在交配、亲代抚育等时期，直接激活某些脑区。与这种观点相反，菲尼克斯及其同事首次提出，新生儿期的激素作用也可能永久性地改变大脑结构，从而在接触性类固醇激素很久之后影响行为差异。因此，菲尼克斯及其同事的研究具有革命性，正因如此，在当时遭到了许多反对。甚至作者们自己在措辞上也非常谨慎，从未直接声称激素可以改变大脑结构，而是即使在标题中也使用了“介导交配行为的组织”，而不是大脑或中枢神经系统。此外，与许多此类革命性研究一样，菲尼克斯及其同事的研究留下的未解答问题比已解答的问题更多。作者们当时确实不知道也无法确切知道类固醇激素在大脑中的作用位置和方式，他们不知道在他们的研究中观察到的效应是源于睾酮的直接作用，还是可能源于某种睾酮代谢产物。自这项开创性研究发表后的半个世纪里，数百篇论文相继发表，证实了菲尼克斯及其同事的最初发现，并且这些论文回答了作者们提出的许多问题。如今我们知道，至少在啮齿动物中，是睾酮代谢产物雌二醇使大脑雄性化。我们知道，在包括青春期甚至可能在成年期的不同时期，激素都可以改变大脑结构。我们知道大脑中有许多性类固醇激素作用导致永久性结构变化的位置。然而，即使在50年后，菲尼克斯、戈伊、杰拉尔和扬的研究仍然具有强大的影响力，证实了他们研究成果的革命性重要意义。
