Age-related changes in the concentrations of cytosol receptors for sex steroid hormones in the hypothalamus and pituitary gland of the rat.

Estrogen and androgen receptors were measured in cytosols from hypothalamus, pituitary and uterus or prostate of rats at 3 stages in life, from 90 to 650 days old in females and from 90 to 550 days old in males. Saturation analysis of cytosol 17 beta-estradiol receptors in females demonstrated a significant age-associated reduction in maximum binding capacity in hypothalamus and uterus already at 300-330 days of life, but there was no significant change in pituitary gland. However, there was no difference in binding affinity, steroid specificity, sedimentation coefficient, chemical nature and heat lability of cytosol 17 beta-estradiol binding of these tissues among the 3 age groups. In males, each receptor for 17 beta-estradiol, testosterone and 5 alpha-dihydrotestosterone was isolated by sucrose density gradient centrifugation from hypothalamic, pituitary and prostate cytosols. These receptors showed the same sedimentation coefficient of 8-9S in all age groups. Androgen binding by cytosols already decreased at 300-330 days of life, but estrogen binding was lower at 500-550 days of life than in younger adults. The increase in the serum luteinizing hormone level after gonadectomy was significantly depressed with aging in both females and males. These findings suggested that the age-associated reduction in cytosol sex steroid hormone receptors was ascribable to changes of numbers of binding sites. These age-related changes may be concerned with feedback system dysfunction of hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal axis in aged rats.