Endocrine Abstracts

By including the synthetic glucocorticoid (GC), dexamethasone, in the maternal drinking water on gestational days 16–19 (0.5 μg/ml) or days 1–7 after birth (1.0 μg/ml), we have recently demonstrated (McArthur et al. J. Neuroendocrinol. 17: 475) that perinatal exposure of rat pups to GCs increased dopaminergic (DA) cell numbers in the adult ventral tegmental area (VTA) at −5.1 to −5.4 mm relative to Bregma (level I). In order to investig...

Our recent studies show that perinatal exposure to the synthetic glucocorticoid (GC), dexamethasone, altered the number of dopaminergic cell bodies in mesencephalic nuclei in adult male and female rats, with implications for mood, behaviour and motor activity. The present study therefore aimed to determine whether hypothalamic dopaminergic populations are also subject to such 'programming' effects. Using timed pregnant rats, dexamethasone was included in the drinking water bet...

Epidemiological and clinical studies provide evidence for sex differences in the incidence or severity of certain neurological conditions. For example Parkinson's disease, which is characterised by a progressive degeneration of dopaminergic (DA) neurones in the substantia nigra pars compacta (SNc) and a reduction in DA levels in the striatum, is more prevalent in men than women. Therefore, our work aimed to establish whether physiological levels of sex steroid hormones confer ...

There is now substantial evidence to suggest that the early life environment can have a permanent effect on adult physiology. Recently we have shown that early postnatal glucocorticoid (GC) exposure produces alterations in midbrain dopaminergic cell number in the adult rat, in a gender-specific manner (McArthur et al., Brit. Neurosci. Assoc. Abstr. 2003;17:27). Since the protein annexin 1 (ANXA1) mediates some aspects of the effects of GCs within the immune system and the hypo...