Hypothalamic Kisspeptin Expression in Hyperandrogenic Female Rats and Aging Rats.

Kinuyo Iwata
Yuyu Kunimura
Hitoshi Ozawa

Hypothalamic kisspeptin neurons stimulate gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) and luteinizing hormone (LH) release. Kisspeptin neurons in the anteroventral periventricular nucleus (AVPV) of rats induce an LH surge for ovulation
 and those in the arcuate nucleus (ARC) regulate pulsatile LH secretion for follicle development and spermatogenesis. Dysfunction of kisspeptin neurons thus reduces the reproductive function. This review focuses on the effect of androgen or aging on kisspeptin expression in rats. Although androgen directly suppresses ARC kisspeptin neurons in female rats
 the AVPV kisspeptin neurons are hardly affected. In rats
 plasma LH concentrations decrease in both sexes with aging
 and ARC kisspeptin expression also decreases in old rats compared with young rats. In addition
 kisspeptin neurons may be associated with hyperprolactinemia in old female rats because they are known to release prolactin through hypothalamic tuberoinfundibular dopaminergic (TIDA) neurons. Hypothalamic kisspeptin neurons are thus the main regulator to secrete LH
 and inhibition of kisspeptin expression leads to various kinds of reproductive dysfunction.

Acta histochemica et cytochemica

52

5

10.1267/ahc.19013

https://doi.org/10.1267/ahc.19013
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31777408
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6872488