Zhou L, Blaustein J D, De Vries G J
Department of Psychology, University of Massachusetts, Amherst 01003.
Endocrinology. 1994 Jun;134(6):2622-7. doi: 10.1210/endo.134.6.8194487.
Arginine vasopressin-immunoreactive (AVP-ir) neurons in the bed nucleus of stria terminalis (BST) and medial amygdaloid nucleus are very responsive to gonadal hormones. After gonadectomy, these neurons lose their AVP immunoreactivity and stop expressing AVP mRNA. Testosterone treatment reverses these changes, acting via androgen as well as estrogen receptor-mediated mechanisms. Although AVP-ir neurons contain estrogen receptor immunoreactivity, it is not known whether they also contain androgen receptor immunoreactivity. To answer this question, brains of male rats were stained immunocytochemically for AVP as well as for androgen receptors. In the BST and medial amygdaloid nucleus, respectively, 90.5% and 91.2% of the AVP-ir neurons contained androgen receptor immunoreactivity. In contrast, in the suprachiasmatic nucleus, the supraoptic nucleus, and the magnocellular portion of the paraventricular nucleus (PVN), none of the AVP-ir neurons contained androgen receptor immunoreactivity. In the ventral zone of the medial parvocellular part of the PVN (mpvPVN), 4.3% of the scattered AVP-ir neurons contained androgen receptor immunoreactivity. One of the control experiments, i.e. staining sections for oxytocin (OT) rather than AVP, revealed that although OT-ir neurons in the supraoptic and magnocellular portion of the PVN did not contain androgen receptor immunoreactivity, 52.5% of the OT-ir neurons in the mpvPVN did. The results suggest that androgens can bind to androgen receptors in AVP-ir neurons in the BST and medial amygdaloid nucleus, possibly to influence AVP expression. The results also suggest that androgens can bind to androgen receptors in AVP-ir and OT-ir neurons in the mpvPVN. The function of the latter interaction, however, is unclear.
终纹床核（BST）和杏仁内侧核中精氨酸加压素免疫反应性（AVP-ir）神经元对性腺激素非常敏感。去势后，这些神经元失去AVP免疫反应性并停止表达AVP mRNA。睾酮治疗可逆转这些变化，其作用通过雄激素以及雌激素受体介导的机制实现。虽然AVP-ir神经元含有雌激素受体免疫反应性，但尚不清楚它们是否也含有雄激素受体免疫反应性。为了回答这个问题，对雄性大鼠的大脑进行了免疫细胞化学染色，以检测AVP和雄激素受体。在BST和杏仁内侧核中，分别有90.5%和91.2%的AVP-ir神经元含有雄激素受体免疫反应性。相比之下，在视交叉上核、视上核和室旁核（PVN）的大细胞部分，没有AVP-ir神经元含有雄激素受体免疫反应性。在PVN内侧小细胞部分的腹侧区（mpvPVN），4.3%的散在AVP-ir神经元含有雄激素受体免疫反应性。其中一项对照实验，即用催产素（OT）而非AVP对切片进行染色，结果显示，虽然PVN视上核和大细胞部分的OT-ir神经元不含有雄激素受体免疫反应性，但mpvPVN中52.5%的OT-ir神经元含有该反应性。结果表明，雄激素可与BST和杏仁内侧核中AVP-ir神经元的雄激素受体结合，可能影响AVP表达。结果还表明，雄激素可与mpvPVN中AVP-ir和OT-ir神经元的雄激素受体结合。然而，后一种相互作用的功能尚不清楚。
