Effects of gonadotropin releasing hormone and estradiol on c-fos expression in the rat hippocampus

Growth Hormone (GH) and Gonadotropin-Releasing Hormone (GnRH) in the Central Nervous System: A Potential Neurological Combinatory Therapy?

This brief review of the neurological effects of growth hormone (GH) and gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) in the brain, particularly in the cerebral cortex, hypothalamus, hippocampus, cerebellum, spinal cord, neural retina, and brain tumors, summarizes recent information about their therapeutic potential as treatments for different neuropathologies and neurodegenerative processes. The effect of GH and GnRH (by independent administration) has been associated with beneficial impacts in patients with brain trauma and spinal cord injuries. Both GH and GnRH have demonstrated potent neurotrophic, neuroprotective, and neuroregenerative action. Positive behavioral and cognitive effects are also associated with GH and GnRH administration. Increasing evidence suggests the possibility of a multifactorial therapy that includes both GH and GnRH.

■ REVIEW : Stress and Sex Effects on Associative Learning: For Better or for Worse

It is clear that male and female animals have distinct cognitive capacities and emotional responses. For instance, exposure to a fearful and stressful event of restraint and intermittent tail-shocks impairs instru mental learning in male rats, but has minimal consequence in female rats. Conversely, exposure to a similar stressor facilitates classical conditioning in male rats and dramatically impairs conditioning in female rats. Many such sex differences in learning and responses to stress are attributable to the effects of sex hormones on brain morphology and physiology. Indeed, the stress-induced facilitation of classical conditioning in male rats is dependent on activation of the NMDA type of glutamate receptor in the amygdala, whereas the impaired conditioning in female rats is dependent on activational influences of the ovarian hormone estrogen. The role of estrogen and progesterone in the diametrically opposed effects of stress on learning are dis cussed, as are neuronal mechanisms that underlie sex differences in memory formation. NEUROSCIENTIST 4:353-364, 1998

Regulation of hippocampal gonadotropin releasing hormone (GnRH) receptor mRNA and GnRH-stimulated inositol phosphate production by gonadal steroid hormones

The purpose of the present study was to determine if gonadal steroids can alter the amounts of GnRH receptor mRNA in the pyramidal and granule neurons of the hippocampus of female and male rats and if GnRH causes a change in the production of inositol phosphates in hippocampal slices in vitro. The results show that in the ovariectomized rat the amount of GnRH receptor mRNA is increased to 137% in area CA1 and to 147% in area CA3 and in the dentate gyrus when compared to the ovariectomized, estradiol-progesterone treated animal. Similarly, in the orchidectomized male rat the amount of GnRH receptor mRNA is increased to 155% in area CA1, to 146% in area CA3 and to 145% in the dentate gyrus when compared to the intact male rat. There was no significant difference in the relative amounts of GnRH receptor mRNA when gonadectomized male and female rats were compared. Addition of GnRH (100 pM-1 microM) to hippocampal slices in vitro caused a dose-dependent increase in the production of [3H]inositol phosphate which was abolished by co-administration of a GnRH antagonist. The increase in inositol phosphate production was significantly higher at low doses of GnRH (100 pM-1 nM) in estradiol-progesterone treated female and in intact male rats when compared to gonadectomized rats. The results suggest that the amount of GnRH receptor mRNA in the hippocampus is at least in part regulated by gonadal steroids and that the steroid hormones can sensitize the GnRH target neurons to respond more robustly to a GnRH stimulus.