Program in Neuroscience, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Champaign, IL, USA.
Currently at California National Primate Research Center, University of California-Davis, Davis, CA, USA.
J Neuroendocrinol. 2021 Sep;33(9):e13029. doi: 10.1111/jne.13029. Epub 2021 Aug 31.
In female rats, pubertal onset is associated with maturation of the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) and mPFC-mediated behaviours. These behavioural and anatomical changes are likely a result of the effects of oestrogens at the nuclear oestrogen receptor (ER)β, which is expressed at higher levels than the ERα isoform in the adult mPFC. Researchers have previously quantified ERβ protein and Esr2 RNA in rodents during early postnatal development and adulthood, although an adolescent-specific trajectory of this receptor in the mPFC has not been documented. Given that Esr2 expression can fluctuate in the presence or absence of oestrogens, puberty and the subsequent rise in gonadal hormones could influence levels of ERβ in the adolescent brain. To further explore this, we used RNAscope® technology to quantify the amount of Esr2 mRNA in pre-pubertal adolescent, recently post-pubertal adolescent and adult female rats. We show that Esr2 expression decreases significantly in the mPFC, striatum and motor cortex between pre-pubertal adolescence and adulthood. In the mPFC, this decrease occurs rapidly at pubertal onset, with no significant decrease in Esr2 levels between the recently post-pubertal and adult cohort. By contrast, the striatum and motor cortex had no significant differences in the amount of Esr2 mRNA between pre- and post-pubertal females. Insofar as the amount of Esr2 expression is proportional to functional ERβ, these results suggest ERβ decreases in a region-specific pattern in response to pubertal onset and highlight a role for this receptor in the maturational events that occur in the female rat mPFC at puberty.
在雌性大鼠中，青春期的开始与内侧前额叶皮层（mPFC）的成熟和 mPFC 介导的行为有关。这些行为和解剖结构的变化可能是雌激素对核雌激素受体（ER）β作用的结果，ERβ在成年 mPFC 中的表达水平高于 ERα同工型。研究人员以前已经在啮齿动物的早期产后发育和成年期量化了 ERβ蛋白和 Esr2 RNA，尽管 mPFC 中这种受体的青春期特定轨迹尚未记录。鉴于 Esr2 表达可以在雌激素存在或不存在的情况下波动，青春期和随后性腺激素的增加可能会影响青春期大脑中 ERβ的水平。为了进一步探索这一点，我们使用 RNAscope®技术来量化处于青春期前的青春期、最近青春期后的青春期和成年雌性大鼠的 mPFC 中 Esr2 mRNA 的量。我们发现，Esr2 在 mPFC、纹状体和运动皮层中的表达在青春期前到成年期之间显著下降。在 mPFC 中，这种下降在青春期开始时迅速发生，最近青春期后和成年队列之间 Esr2 水平没有显著下降。相比之下，纹状体和运动皮层中青春期前和青春期后雌性大鼠之间的 Esr2 mRNA 量没有差异。就 Esr2 表达量与功能性 ERβ 成正比而言，这些结果表明 ERβ 以特定于区域的模式响应青春期开始而减少，并强调了该受体在青春期雌性大鼠 mPFC 中发生的成熟事件中的作用。
