Arsenijevic Y, Dreifuss J J, Vallet P, Marguerat A, Tribollet E
Department of Physiology, University Medical Center, Geneva 4, Switzerland.
Brain Res. 1995 Nov 6;698(1-2):275-9. doi: 10.1016/0006-8993(95)01020-v.
Central oxytocin (OT) receptors were labelled in 3-month-old and 20-month-old rats with an iodinated OT antagonist. Comparison of the autoradiograms by quantitative image analysis revealed in the old animals a significant reduction of binding in three regions; the number of labelled OT receptors was decreased by 90% in the head of the caudate putamen, by 68% in the olfactory tubercle, and by 41% in the ventromedial hypothalamic nucleus. Previous studies had shown that the expression of OT receptors in the olfactory tubercle and in the ventromedial hypothalamic nucleus was dependent upon gonadal steroids. Therefore we hypothesize that the reduced number of OT receptors in the latter two structures of aged rats was the consequence of the 4-fold decrease of plasma testosterone that we found in this age. Another mechanism may be responsible for the marked reduction of OT receptors in the caudate putamen.
用碘化催产素拮抗剂对3月龄和20月龄大鼠的中枢催产素（OT）受体进行标记。通过定量图像分析对放射自显影片进行比较，结果显示老年动物的三个区域的结合显著减少；尾状壳核头部的标记OT受体数量减少了90%，嗅结节减少了68%，下丘脑腹内侧核减少了41%。先前的研究表明，嗅结节和下丘脑腹内侧核中OT受体的表达依赖于性腺类固醇。因此，我们推测老年大鼠后两个结构中OT受体数量的减少是我们在这个年龄段发现的血浆睾酮降低4倍的结果。另一种机制可能是导致尾状壳核中OT受体显著减少的原因。
