Neuro-steroids: 3β-hydroxy-Δ5-derivatives in the rodent brain

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Abstract

Pregnenolone, dehydroepiandrosterone and their sulfate esters have been characterized in the rat brain. Their formation or accumulation depend on in situ mechanisms unrelated to the peripheral endocrine glands. Although their functions are still poorly understood, they may affect the brain by metabolism to sex steroid hormones and they may be functionally related to sexual behavior, possibly through direct modulations of the firing rates of neurons.

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      However, the study by Corpéchot et al. (1981b) was important as it stimulated other researchers to investigate if the brain could be able to locally synthesize steroid hormones. Therefore, several studies confirmed the presence of steroidogenic enzymes in the brain of different species through different techniques (Robel and Baulieu, 1985; Le Goascogne et al., 1987; Mellon and Deschepper, 1993; Dupont et al., 1994; Mensah-Nyagan et al., 1994; Mathieu et al., 2001; Matsunaga et al., 2001). In the human brain, the areas with the highest expression of CYP11A1 are the olfactory bulb, thalamus, caudate nucleus, corpus callosum, hippocampus, hypothalamus, amygdala, cerebral cortex and cerebellum, while in rodents the cerebral cortex is the area with the highest expression of this enzyme (as reviewed by Pelletier, 2010).

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    This refereed paper was presented during a special session on Neuroendocrinology—New Vistas, at the Collège de France, Paris, February–March 1984, organized by Dr A. Tixier-Vidal and Professor J. Glowinski, Drs H. Hamon, A. Tixier-Vidal and J. Glowinski acted as executive editors in the refereeing of this paper.

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