IngentaConnect Oestrogen Receptor-alpha-Immunoreactive Neurones Project to the S...

Abstract:

Ovarian steroid hormones regulate circadian period and phase, but classical receptors for these hormones are absent in the circadian pacemaker localized in the suprachiasmatic nucleus of the hypothalamus (SCN). In order to determine whether effects of oestrogen may be exerted through steroid-binding systems afferent to the SCN we have performed double label immunocytochemistry for oestrogen receptor-(ER-) and the retrograde tracer cholera toxin B subunit (CtB) after its application to the SCN. Most of the areas that contain ER--immunoreactive (ER-ir) cells also contained cells afferent to the SCN. The percentage of neurones afferent to the SCN which show ER-immunoreactivity varies between areas. As many as one-third of the neurones afferent to the SCN in some parts of the preoptic area and the corticomedial amygdala are ER-ir. Very few of the afferent neurones from the septum and the central grey are ER-ir, whereas an intermediate proportion of afferents from the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis and the arcuate nucleus are ER-ir. Our retrograde tracing results were compared with results of anterograde tracing from some of the sites containing SCN afferents. Using a combined retrograde and anterograde tracing technique we tested the possibility that single ER-ir neurones afferent to the SCN could receive reciprocal innervation by SCN efferents. Although we found SCN input to some SCN afferent neurones, we found no evidence of reciprocity between single ER-ir cells and the SCN. Our results indicate the existence of oestrogen binding systems afferent to the SCN. These neuroanatomical pathways may mediate effects of gonadal steroid hormones on circadian rhythms.

Keywords: neuronal tracing; suprachiasmatic nucleus; oestrogen receptor; immunocytochemistry; luteinising hormone surge

Language: English

Document Type: Research article

Affiliations: 1: Center for Neuroendocrine Studies, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA, USA. *

Oestrogen Receptor--Immunoreactive Neurones Project to the Suprachiasmatic Nucleus of the Female Syrian Hamster