Steroid hormones
 their receptors and neuroendocrine system

Hitoshi Ozawa

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 steroid hormone receptors
 which directly regulate gene expression. The steroid hormone receptor superfamily is an intracellular ligand-regulated transcription factor. All members
 including the glucocorticoid receptors (GR)
 mineralocoroticoid receptors (MR)
 estrogen receptors (ER)
 progesterone receptors (PR) and androgen receptor (AR)
 mediate the expression of a gene by binding to hormone responsive elements (HREs) as dimmers in a ligand-dependent manner. In particular
 steroid hormones have an important role for the regulating neurons and cells
 which are associated with the neuroendocrine and endocrine regulation system
 because many neuroendocrine neurons and cells express the steroid hormone receptors
 such as estrogen receptor (ER)
 androgen receptor (AR) and corticosteroid receptors. In this review
 first the localization of GR and MR immunoreactivities in the brain is introduced
 and secondly
 the effects of change of GR expression in neurons are examined by several morphological approaches. Third
 the interaction of GR expression and pituitary cell function is introduced. Finally
 the recent topics on the control system of feeding regulation in the central nervous system
 which also closely involves steroid hormone action
 are discussed.

Journal of Nippon Medical School

72

6

10.1272/jnms.72.316

https://doi.org/10.1272/jnms.72.316
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16415511