A brief review comparing the effects of sex steroids on two forms of aggression in laboratory mice

Haug, Marc; Brain, Paul F.; Kamis, A. B.

doi:10.1016/0149-7634(86)90007-2

Cited by 32 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 31 publications

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“…Finally, as predicted by species differences in male-male aggression, we found that males of the two species also differed in average plasma TESTO, with males of the white-male species ( S. virgatus ) having a lower mean level. Integrating centers may be affected by androgens, and steroid hormones also may affect perception of [37] and response to stimuli [2, 29 39, 64] that elicit aggression. Hence, lower circulating levels could contribute to the observed differences in male-male aggression.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sex and species differences in plasma testosterone and in counts of androgen receptor-positive cells in key brain regions of Sceloporus lizard species that differ in aggression

Hews¹,

Hara²,

Anderson³

2012

General and Comparative Endocrinology

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We studied neuroendocrine correlates of aggression differences in adults of two Sceloporus lizard species. These species differ in the degree of sex difference in aggressive color signals (belly patches) and in aggression: S. undulatus (males blue, high aggression; females white, low aggression) and S. virgatus (both sexes white, lower aggression). We measured plasma testosterone and counted cells expressing androgen receptor-like immunoreactivity to the affinity-purified polyclonal AR antibody, PG-21, in three brain regions of breeding season adults. Male S. undulatus had the highest mean plasma testosterone and differed significantly from conspecific females. In contrast, there was no sex difference in plasma testosterone concentrations in S. virgatus. Male S. undulatus also had the highest mean number of AR-positive cells in the preoptic area: the sexes differed in S. undulatus but not in S. virgatus, and females of the two species did not differ. In the ventral medial hypothalamus, S. undulatus males had higher mean AR cell counts compared to females, but again there was no sex difference in S. virgatus. In the habenula, a control brain region, the sexes did not differ, and although the sex by species interaction significant was not significant, there was a trend (p = 0.050) for S. virgatus to have higher mean AR cell counts than S. undulatus. Thus hypothalamic AR cell counts paralleled sex and species differences in aggression, as did mean plasma testosterone levels in these breeding-season animals.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sex and species differences in plasma testosterone and in counts of androgen receptor-positive cells in key brain regions of Sceloporus lizard species that differ in aggression

Hews¹,

Hara²,

Anderson³

2012

General and Comparative Endocrinology

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“…Other observations directly and indirectly suggest that the same role is played by DHEA in the CNS, including the time course required to produce certain effects; metabolic pathways that lead to the formation of more potent androgens from DHEA; parallels between the effects of DHEA and other androgenic treatments; the ability of flutamide (FLU), a pure nonsteroidal AR antagonist (Berrevoets et al, 2002), to block a subset of effects produced by DHEA treatment; and a preliminary report describing direct effects on AR in the brain (Lu et al, 2001). For example, DHEA is a potent inhibitor of conspecific aggressive behavior in female and gonadectomized male mice (Haug et al, 1986;Young et al, 1996;Perche et al, 2001). This effect requires 15 days of DHEA treatment, a regimen consistent with the possibility of a genomic effect, and also can be produced by testosterone (T) administration (Haug and Brain, 1983).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Dehydroepiandrosterone upregulates neural androgen receptor level and transcriptional activity

et al. 2003

J. Neurobiol.

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The mechanism of action of dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA), a neuroactive neurosteroid synthesized in the brains of humans and other mammals, has not been fully characterized in the adult brain. Although well known for modulatory effects on GABA(A), NMDA, and sigma(1) receptors, studies in both CNS and peripheral target cells suggest that DHEA also may exert genomic effects via the androgen receptor (AR). The current study tested the hypothesis that DHEA was capable of producing androgenic effects in the CNS by assaying its ability to induce three characteristic effects of an androgenic compound. These included the ability to upregulate neural AR protein level in mouse brain and immortalized GT1-7 hypothalamic cells, the capacity to induce transcriptional activity through AR in CV-1 cells transfected with an MMTV-ARE-CAT reporter, and competition for recombinant AR binding in a radioligand binding assay. The results showed that DHEA treatment significantly augmented AR both in vivo and in vitro, and that this effect was not blocked by trilostane (TRIL), a known 3beta-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase (3beta-HSD) inhibitor. DHEA also promoted AR-mediated CAT reporter expression and competed with dihydrotestosterone (DHT) for binding to recombinant AR in a cell-free system. These data indicate that DHEA possesses intrinsic androgenic activity that is potentially independent of metabolic conversion to other androgens, and that it can affect gene function through the AR. In combination with its modulation of neurotransmitter receptors at the cell membrane level, the findings suggest that the mechanism of action of DHEA in the brain can involve a "crosstalk" cellular signaling system that involves both nongenomic and genomic components.

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“…The aggression tests employed in both experiments were similar to those described elsewhere [Haug et al, 1983[Haug et al, , 1986a[Haug et al, , 1986b[Haug et al, , 1991. Briefly, fighting pairs were randomly formed by introducing a different lactating intruder into the home-cage of each of the experimental females for a 15-min testing session.…”

Section: Experiments IImentioning

confidence: 99%

Prenatal testosterone treatment potentiates the aggression‐inhibiting effect of the neurosteroid dehydroepiandrosterone in female mice

Perché¹,

Young

Röbel

et al. 2001

Aggressive Behavior

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The neurosteroid dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) is a powerful inhibitor of aggression in murine models when given for 15 days and potentially may be useful in the management of inappropriate human aggression. Although the biosynthesis and metabolism of DHEA have been described, little is known about the potential effect of the steroidal environment during sexual differentiation on the subsequent response to DHEA. Whether prenatal androgen exposure influences the subsequent response to DHEA was assessed by comparing the effect of DHEA (80 mg/d) on aggression in female offspring where dams were treated with 1, 10, or 100 mg of testosterone (T) on days 15 to 18 of gestation (Experiment I) or that developed in different uterine positions (Experiment II). The results showed that DHEA decreased attack behavior in general and that the 100-mg prenatal T treatments enhanced the antiaggressive effect of this neurosteroid. Neither the lower doses of exogenously administered T nor the uterine position led to an enhanced response to DHEA. In addition, whether DHEA produced changes in social and nonsocial activities was examined. In the 100-mg T females, DHEA increased the duration of the former and decreased the frequency and duration of the latter, indicating that it was not a general decrement in behavioral expression that mediated the enhanced response to the antiaggressive effect of DHEA. In the second experiment, DHEA treatment led to increased frequencies of social nonaggressive and nonsocial activities. However, the uterine positions ´ treatment interactions were not significant, demonstrating that contiguity to male fetuses did not differentially affect the response to DHEA. Aggr. Behav. 27:130-138, 2001.

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A brief review comparing the effects of sex steroids on two forms of aggression in laboratory mice

Cited by 32 publications

References 31 publications

Sex and species differences in plasma testosterone and in counts of androgen receptor-positive cells in key brain regions of Sceloporus lizard species that differ in aggression

Sex and species differences in plasma testosterone and in counts of androgen receptor-positive cells in key brain regions of Sceloporus lizard species that differ in aggression

Dehydroepiandrosterone upregulates neural androgen receptor level and transcriptional activity

Prenatal testosterone treatment potentiates the aggression‐inhibiting effect of the neurosteroid dehydroepiandrosterone in female mice

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