The posterodorsal medial amygdala (MePD) exhibits numerous sex differences including differences in volume and in the number and morphology of neurons and astroctyes. In adulthood, gonadal hormones, including both androgens and estrogens, have been shown to play a role in maintaining the masculine character of many of these sex differences, but whether adult gonadal hormones maintain the increa...

This review focuses on the effect of gonadal steroid hormones, androgen and estrogen, on dendrites in the adult rat central nervous system (CNS). Four hormone-responsive nuclei are considered: The spinal nucleus of the bulbocavernosus (SNB), the medial nucleus of the amygdala (MeA), the ventromedial nucleus of the hypothalamus (VMN), and the CA1 region of the dorsal hippocampus. Particular emph...

The brain is an important target organ for circulating steroid hormones secreted from peripheral organs such as the adrenal cortex, testis and/or ovary. In other words, these peripheral organs control the central nervous system. Steroid hormones substantially influence brain development, reproduction, sexual differentiation, cognition, memory, behavior, and so on. These effects are mediated by ...

Mutations in the androgen receptor (AR), that alter steroid hormone specificity have been identified in a series of androgen-independent prostate cancers. To address the functional properties of these mutant ARs that may have contributed to their selection in vivo, responses to a series of steroid hormones and antiandrogens were assessed. CV-1 cells were cotransfected with wild-type or mutant A...

Ever since the Noble prize-winning findings of Huggins and Hodges, the androgen receptor (AR) has been the main target for treatment of advanced prostate cancer (CaP). Today, second- and even third-line androgen deprivation strategies, which have been designed rationally to interfere with the AR signaling that re-emerges under conditions of androgen deprivation and is at least in part responsib...

The avian song control system is an excellent model in which to study the effects of gonadal steroid hormones on neural and behavioral plasticity. Several of the brain regions that control song behavior concentrate androgens and/or estrogens. Investigations of the distribution and regulation of androgen receptors have been limited by the lack of a reliable immunocytochemical method to detect an...

Selective nutritive conditions were used to isolate normal epithelial cells from fibroblasts in primary cell cultures prepared from adult rat prostate. The pure population of normal epithelial cells proliferated at an exponential rate on a simple polystyrene substratum with doubling times of 35 to 50 hr for 10 to 12 days in the absence of high epithelial cell density, other cell types, or added...

The metabolic syndrome is a cluster of metabolic disorders characterized by insulin resistance and hyperinsulinaemia, and its presence can increase the risk of cardiovascular disease significantly. The metabolic syndrome is associated with increased circulating androgen levels in women, which may originate from the ovaries and adrenal glands. Adipocytes are also able to synthesise steroid hormo...

Caveolin-1 is an integral protein of caveolae, known to play important roles in signal transduction and lipid transport. We demonstrate that caveolin-1 expression is significantly increased in primary and metastatic human prostate cancer after androgen ablation therapy. We also show that caveolin-1 is secreted by androgen-insensitive prostate cancer cells, and that this secretion is regulated b...