Increased gene transcription activated by the binding of sex steroids to their cognate receptors is one important way in which oestrogen synthase (aromatase) activity is regulated in the brain. This control mechanism is relatively slow (hours to days) but recent data indicate that aromatase activity in quail preoptic-hypothalamic homogenates is also rapidly (within minutes) affected by exposure to conditions that enhance Ca2+-dependent protein phosphorylation. We demonstrate here that Ca2+-dependent phosphorylations controlled by the activity of multiple protein kinases including PKC, and possibly also PKA and CAMK, can rapidly down-regulate aromatase activity in brain homogenates. These phosphorylations directly affect the aromatase molecule itself. Western blotting experiments on aromatase purified by immunoprecipitation reveal the presence on the enzyme of phosphorylated serine, threonine and tyrosine residues in concentrations that are increased by phosphorylating conditions. Cloning and sequencing of the quail aromatase identified a 1541-bp open reading frame that encodes a predicted 490-amino-acid protein containing all the functional domains that have been previously described in the mammalian and avian aromatase. Fifteen predicted consensus phosphorylation sites were identified in this sequence, but only two of these (threonine 455 and 486) match the consensus sequences corresponding to the protein kinases that were shown to affect aromatase activity during the pharmacological experiments (i.e. PKC and PKA). This suggests that the phosphorylation of one or both of these residues represents the mechanism underlying, at least in part, the rapid changes in aromatase activity.

Estrogens derived from the neural aromatization of testosterone play a key role in the activation of male sexual behavior in many vertebrates and have now been recognized to have rapid membrane effects on brain function. Such changes in aromatase activity and hence in local estrogen concentrations could rapidly modulate behavioral responses. We show here that there is a very rapid (within minutes) decrease in aromatase activity in quail hypothalamic explants exposed to treatments affecting intracellular Ca2+ concentrations, such as the addition of glutamate agonists (kainate, alpha-amino-3-hydroxymethyl-4-isoxazole propionic acid, and, to a much lesser extent, N-methyl-D-aspartate), but not of gamma-aminobutyric acid. The kainate effects, which reduce aromatase activity by 25-50%, are observed within 5 min, are completely blocked in explants exposed to specific kainate antagonists (6-cyano-7-nitroquinoxaline-2,3-dione disodium or 1,2,3,4-tetrahydro-6-nitro-2,3-dioxo-benzo[f]quinoxaline-7-sulfonamide disodium), and are also rapidly reversible when effectors are washed out. Together, these data support the idea that the synthesis of estrogen can be rapidly regulated in the brain, thus producing rapid changes in local estrogen bioavailability that could rapidly modify brain function with a time course similar to what has previously been described for neurotransmitters and neuromodulators.

Many actions of androgens require their conversion via the enzyme aromatase into oestrogens. Changes in brain aromatase activity are thought to take place via changes in enzyme concentration mediated by effects of sex steroids on aromatase transcription. These changes are relatively slow which fits in well with the fact that oestrogens are generally viewed as slow-acting messengers that act via changes in gene transcription. More recently, fast actions of oestrogens, presumably at the level of the cell membrane, have been described both in the female brain and in the male brain after the conversion of testosterone to oestradiol. It is difficult to reconcile the slow regulation of oestrogen synthesis (that occurs via changes in aromatase concentration) with a rapid action at the membrane level. Even if fast transduction mechanisms are available, this will not result in rapid changes in brain function if the availability of the ligand does not also change rapidly. Here, we report that aromatase activity in neural tissue of male Japanese quail (Coturnix japonica) is rapidly downregulated in the presence of Mg(2+), Ca(2+) and ATP in hypothalamic homogenates and in brain explants exposed to high Ca(2+) levels following a K(+)-induced depolarization or the stimulation of glutamate receptors. The K(+)-induced inhibition of aromatase activity is observed within minutes and reversible. Given that aromatase is present in presynaptic boutons, it is possible that rapidly changing levels of locally produced oestrogen are available for nongenomic regulation of neuronal physiology in a manner more akin to the action of a neuropeptide than previously hypothesized.

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Non-genomic effects of steroid hormones on cell physiology have been reported in the brain. However, relatively little is known about the behavioral significance of these actions. Male sexual behavior is activated by testosterone partly through its conversion to estradiol via the enzyme aromatase in the preoptic area (POA). Brain aromatase activity (AA) changes rapidly which might in turn be important for the rapid regulation of behavior. Here, acute effects of Vorozole ™ , an aromatase inhibitor, injected IP at different doses and times before testing (between 15 and 60 min), were assessed on male sexual behavior in quail. To limit the risk of committing both types of statistical errors (I and II), data of all experiments were entered into a meta-analysis. Vorozole ™ significantly inhibited mount attempts (p<0.05, size effect [g]=0.527) and increased the latency to first copulation (p<0.05, g=0.251). The treatment had no effect on the other measures of copulatory behavior. Vorozole ™ also inhibited appetitive sexual behavior measured by the social proximity response (p<0.05, g=0.534) or rhythmic cloacal sphincter movements (p<0.001, g=0.408). Behavioral inhibitions always reached a maximum at 30 min. Another aromatase inhibitor, androstatrienedione, induced a similar rapid inhibition of sphincter movements. Radioenzyme assays demonstrated that within 30 min Vorozole ™ had reached the POA and completely blocked AA measured in homogenates. When added to the extracellular milieu, Vorozole ™ also blocked within 5 min the AA in POA explants maintained in vitro. Together, these data demonstrate that aromatase inhibition rapidly decreases both consummatory and appetitive aspects of male sexual behavior.