Department of Anthropology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA.
Department of Anthropology, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, Indiana, USA.
Dev Psychobiol. 2024 Jul;66(5):e22491. doi: 10.1002/dev.22491.
Developmental plasticity is particularly important for humans and other primates because of our extended period of growth and maturation, during which our phenotypes adaptively respond to environmental cues. The hypothalamus-pituitary-gonadal (HPG) and hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axes are likely to be principal targets of developmental "programming" given their roles in coordinating fitness-relevant aspects of the phenotype, including sexual development, adult reproductive and social strategies, and internal responses to the external environment. In social animals, including humans, the social environment is believed to be an important source of cues to which these axes may adaptively respond. The effects of early social environments on the HPA axis have been widely studied in humans, and to some extent, in other primates, but there are still major gaps in knowledge specifically relating to males. There has also been relatively little research examining the role that social environments play in developmental programming of the HPG axis or the HPA/HPG interface, and what does exist disproportionately focuses on females. These topics are likely understudied in males in part due to the difficulty of identifying developmental milestones in males relative to females and the general quiescence of the HPG axis prior to maturation. However, there are clear indicators that early life social environments matter for both sexes. In this review, we examine what is known about the impact of social environments on HPG and HPA axis programming during male development in humans and nonhuman primates, including the role that epigenetic mechanisms may play in this programming. We conclude by highlighting important next steps in this research area.
发育可塑性对人类和其他灵长类动物尤为重要，因为我们有一个较长的生长和成熟阶段，在此期间，我们的表型会适应环境线索做出响应。下丘脑-垂体-性腺（HPG）和下丘脑-垂体-肾上腺（HPA）轴很可能是发育“编程”的主要靶点，因为它们在协调表型与适应相关的方面发挥作用，包括性发育、成年生殖和社会策略以及对外部环境的内部响应。在包括人类在内的社会性动物中，社会环境被认为是这些轴可能做出适应性响应的重要线索来源。早期社会环境对 HPA 轴的影响在人类中得到了广泛研究，在某种程度上，在其他灵长类动物中也得到了研究，但具体涉及雄性的知识仍然存在很大的差距。还有相对较少的研究探讨社会环境在 HPG 轴或 HPA/HPG 界面发育编程中的作用，而且现有的研究也不成比例地集中在女性身上。这些主题在雄性中可能研究不足，部分原因是相对于女性而言，雄性的发育里程碑较难确定，并且 HPG 轴在成熟之前通常处于静止状态。然而，有明确的迹象表明，早期的社会环境对两性都很重要。在这篇综述中，我们研究了社会环境对人类和非人类灵长类动物雄性发育过程中 HPG 和 HPA 轴编程的影响，包括表观遗传机制可能在这种编程中所起的作用。最后，我们强调了该研究领域的重要下一步。
