McGivern R F, Roselli C E, Handa R J
Department of Medicine, UCLA, Torrance 90509.
Alcohol Clin Exp Res. 1988 Dec;12(6):769-72. doi: 10.1111/j.1530-0277.1988.tb01342.x.
Fetal alcohol exposure has been shown to produce long-term feminizing and demasculinizing effects on male rat behaviors which are organizationally dependent upon perinatal androgen levels. Such exposure has previously been shown to suppress the normal surge of testosterone during the critical prenatal period. Since defeminization of male rat behavior is dependent upon estrogen derived from the aromatization of testosterone in brain, brain aromatase activity was measured during the perinatal period in males and females exposed to alcohol beginning on Day 14 of gestation. Aromatase activity was measured in whole hypothalamus of fetuses from Day 16 through 20 of gestation and in the hypothalamic preoptic area and amygdala of animals 6-12 hr postparturition. Hypothalamic aromatase activity was elevated in fetal alcohol exposed males compared to controls on Days 18 and 19 of gestation and on postnatal Day 1. No effect of prenatal alcohol exposure was found in females. A sex effect in aromatase activity in the amygdala was evident on Day 1 when activity was found to be greater in males than females. Overall, these findings indicate that fetal alcohol exposure will elevate regional brain aromatase activity in males, but not females during the perinatal period of neurobehavioral sexual differentiation.
胎儿酒精暴露已被证明会对雄性大鼠的行为产生长期的女性化和去男性化影响，这些影响在组织上依赖于围产期雄激素水平。此前已表明，这种暴露会抑制关键产前时期睾酮的正常激增。由于雄性大鼠行为的去女性化依赖于大脑中睾酮芳香化产生的雌激素，因此在妊娠第14天开始暴露于酒精的雄性和雌性大鼠的围产期期间，测量了大脑芳香化酶的活性。在妊娠第16天至20天的胎儿全下丘脑中以及产后6 - 12小时动物的下丘脑视前区和杏仁核中测量了芳香化酶活性。与对照组相比，在妊娠第18天和19天以及出生后第1天，暴露于酒精的雄性胎儿下丘脑芳香化酶活性升高。在雌性大鼠中未发现产前酒精暴露的影响。在出生后第1天，杏仁核中芳香化酶活性存在性别差异，雄性的活性明显高于雌性。总体而言，这些发现表明，在神经行为性别分化的围产期，胎儿酒精暴露会提高雄性大鼠而非雌性大鼠大脑区域的芳香化酶活性。
