González-Alonso Alba, Morales Lorena, Sanz Elisenda, Medina Loreta, Desfilis Ester
Department of Experimental Medicine, Universitat de Lleida, Lleida, Spain.
Laboratory of Evolutionary and Developmental Neurobiology, Lleida's Institute for Biomedical Research-Dr. Pifarré Foundation (IRBLleida), Lleida, Spain.
J Comp Neurol. 2025 Apr;533(4):e70047. doi: 10.1002/cne.70047.
The medial extended amygdala (EAme) is part of the social behavior network and its subdivisions show expression of sex-steroid receptors, which participate in the regulation of sexually dimorphic behaviors. However, EAme subdivisions are highly heterogeneous in terms of neuron subtypes, with different subpopulations being involved in regulation of different aspects of social and non-social behaviors. To further understand the role of the different EAme neurons and their contribution to sexual differences, here we studied one of its major subtypes of glutamatergic neurons, those derived from the telencephalon-opto-hypothalamic domain that coexpress Otp and Foxg1 genes during development. Our results showed that the vast majority of the Otp glutamatergic neurons of the medial amygdala and medial bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BSTM) in both sexes express Ar, Esr1 (ERα), and Esr2 (ERβ) mRNA. Moreover, the high percentage of receptors expression in the Otp neurons (between 93% and 100%) indicates that probably the majority of the Otp neurons of EAme are coexpressing the three receptors. In addition, Otp neurons of the posterodorsal medial amygdala have a larger soma and occupy more space in males than in females. These and other features of the Otp neurons regarding their expression of sex-steroid receptors likely contribute to some of the sexually dimorphic behaviors regulated by EAme.
内侧扩展杏仁核（EAme）是社会行为网络的一部分，其亚区表达性类固醇受体，参与调控两性异形行为。然而，EAme亚区在神经元亚型方面高度异质性，不同亚群参与调控社会和非社会行为的不同方面。为了进一步了解不同EAme神经元的作用及其对性别差异的贡献，我们在此研究了其主要的谷氨酸能神经元亚型之一，即那些在发育过程中共同表达Otp和Foxg1基因的源自端脑-视-下丘脑区域的神经元。我们的结果表明，两性内侧杏仁核和终纹床核内侧部（BSTM）的绝大多数Otp谷氨酸能神经元表达雄激素受体（Ar）、雌激素受体1（Esr1，ERα）和雌激素受体2（Esr2，ERβ）的mRNA。此外，Otp神经元中受体的高表达百分比（93%至100%之间）表明，EAme的大多数Otp神经元可能同时表达这三种受体。此外，与雌性相比，雄性后内侧杏仁核的Otp神经元胞体更大，占据的空间更多。Otp神经元在性类固醇受体表达方面的这些及其他特征，可能促成了EAme调控的一些两性异形行为。
