Elsevier

Neuroscience Letters

Volume 241, Issue 1, 23 January 1998, Pages 29-32
Neuroscience Letters

The distribution of estrogen receptors in the brainstem of female sheep1

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0304-3940(97)00963-4Get rights and content

Abstract

Estrogen receptors (ER) have been mapped in the brainstem of the female sheep with immunocytochemistry. A small group of ER-positive cells was found in the lateral and ventrolateral medulla and a larger number in the nucleus of the solitary tract. ER-positive cells were abundant in the area postrema. In the rostral brainstem a small number of ER-positive cells were found in the lateral and dorsal regions of the periaqueductal gray area, and some immediately lateral to the fourth ventricle. Many ER-positive cells were also present in the region around the superior cerebellar peduncle, particularly in the lateral parabrachial nucleus. These results describe for the first time the distribution of ER in the brainstem of the sheep and indicate that the majority of estrogen-containing cells are located in structures involved in the regulation of cardiovascular parameters and fluid balance.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia.

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Cited by (27)

  • Sex differences in the expression of estrogen receptor alpha within noradrenergic neurons in the sheep brain stem

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    In that study, nearly 100% of retrogradely labeled cells in the A1 region were DBH-ir, and because in our study the number of ERα/DBH-double labeled cells in the ram was essentially the same as in the ewe, it seems most likely that the same pathway as described in the ewe exists in the ram, possibly with similar numbers of neurons. Previous data from the ewe suggest that ERα within noradrenergic cells in the A1 region have a role in the positive feedback actions of estrogen on GnRH/LH secretion [10–18]. Based on this, we hypothesized that there would be a population of cells present in the ewe but absent in the ram and these may be partially responsible for relaying the positive feedback actions of estrogen.

  • Estradiol-17β-responsive A1 and A2 noradrenergic cells of the brain stem project to the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis in the ewe brain: A possible route for regulation of gonadotropin releasing hormone cells

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    Interestingly, cells of the PBN that project to the BNST did not contain ERα and are thus unlikely to participate in the feedback regulation of GnRH neurons. This is in spite of the fact that this region of the ovine brain contains many cells that express ERα (Scott et al., 1998). Also, in rats, cells of this nucleus, especially in the lateral regions, express ERα and ERβ (Simerly et al., 1990; Saleh et al., 2003).

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1

Part of this work was presented at the 30th Annual Meeting of the Australian Society for Reproductive Biology, Canberra, Australia 1997, and the 27th Annual Meeting of the Society for Neuroscience, New Orleans, USA, 1997.

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