The Effects of Brain Estrogen on Motivational Feeding Behaviors in Rats


Book Description

Estrogens have been previously identified as regulators of food reward, or motivated behavior towards food, where high levels are correlated with decreased food motivation. However, only ovarian-derived estrogens have been heavily investigated. Estrogen is primarily produced within the ovaries, but it can also be synthesized in the brain, including in the amygdala, by brain aromatase enzymes that convert androgens into estrogens. Here we hypothesized that brain-produced estrogens are important in the control of food intake and food-motivated behavior in female rats, independently of the function of their ovarian counterparts. To further examine the function of amygdala estrogens on food motivation, estrogen levels specifically within the amygdala were manipulated in female and male rats. Estrogen levels were increased through [beta]-estradiol microinjections to the central amygdala of rats or were decreased by viral gene silencing of the aromatase enzyme (knockdown) specifically in the central amygdala. In addition, we also examined whether the estrous cycle, thus ovarian-produced hormones, interacts with the food motivation effect in intra-amygdala estrogen microinjections. Contrary to our hypothesis, estradiol injections did not affect food motivation, but had an acute effect on food seeking and locomotor activity in female rats, and this effect was estrous cycle dependent. Interestingly, we found that aromatase knockdown within the amygdala decreased food motivation, but only in female rats. These results suggest that brain estrogen manipulations might have a greater effect on female rats, and that brain-produced estrogen and ovarian estrogen might play a divergent role in food-motivated behavior, yet the function of brain-produced estrogen interacts with ovarian hormones.




Motivation


Book Description




Sex and Gender Factors Affecting Metabolic Homeostasis, Diabetes and Obesity


Book Description

The book provides a reference for years to come, written by world-renowned expert investigators studying sex differences, the role of sex hormones, the systems biology of sex, and the genetic contribution of sex chromosomes to metabolic homeostasis and diseases. In this volume, leaders of the pharmaceutical industry present their views on sex-specific drug discovery. Many of the authors presented at the Keystone Symposium on “Sex and gender factors affecting metabolic homeostasis, diabetes and obesity” to be held in March 2017 in Lake Tahoe, CA. This book will generate new knowledge and ideas on the importance of gender biology and medicine from a molecular standpoint to the population level and to provide the methods to study them. It is intended to be a catalyst leading to gender-specific treatments of metabolic diseases. There are fundamental aspects of metabolic homeostasis that are regulated differently in males and females, and influence both the development of diabetes and obesity and the response to pharmacological intervention. Still, most preclinical researchers avoid studying female rodents due to the added complexity of research plans. The consequence is a generation of data that risks being relevant to only half of the population. This is a timely moment to publish a book on sex differences in diseases as NIH leadership has asked scientists to consider sex as a biological variable in preclinical research, to ensure that women get the same benefit of medical research as men.







The Female Brain


Book Description

Since Dr. Brizendine wrote The Female Brain ten years ago, the response has been overwhelming. This New York Times bestseller has been translated into more than thirty languages, has sold nearly a million copies between editions, and has most recently inspired a romantic comedy starring Whitney Cummings and Sofia Vergara. And its profound scientific understanding of the nature and experience of the female brain continues to guide women as they pass through life stages, to help men better understand the girls and women in their lives, and to illuminate the delicate emotional machinery of a love relationship. Why are women more verbal than men? Why do women remember details of fights that men can’t remember at all? Why do women tend to form deeper bonds with their female friends than men do with their male counterparts? These and other questions have stumped both sexes throughout the ages. Now, pioneering neuropsychiatrist Louann Brizendine, M.D., brings together the latest findings to show how the unique structure of the female brain determines how women think, what they value, how they communicate, and who they love. While doing research as a medical student at Yale and then as a resident and faculty member at Harvard, Louann Brizendine discovered that almost all of the clinical data in existence on neurology, psychology, and neurobiology focused exclusively on males. In response to the overwhelming need for information on the female mind, Brizendine established the first clinic in the country to study and treat women’s brain function. In The Female Brain, Dr. Brizendine distills all her findings and the latest information from the scientific community in a highly accessible book that educates women about their unique brain/body/behavior. The result: women will come away from this book knowing that they have a lean, mean, communicating machine. Men will develop a serious case of brain envy.




Brain Aging


Book Description

Recognition that aging is not the accumulation of disease, but rather comprises fundamental biological processes that are amenable to experimental study, is the basis for the recent growth of experimental biogerontology. As increasingly sophisticated studies provide greater understanding of what occurs in the aging brain and how these changes occur







The Neurobiology of Motivation and Reward


Book Description

This book was conceived many years ago as an abstract goal for a father-son team when the father was working in university administration and the son was just getting into the academic business. Eventually, the father returned to the laboratory, the son began to get his feet on the ground, and the goal became concrete. Now the work is finished, and our book enters the literature as, we hope, a valuable contribution to understanding the terribly complex and subtle problem of the neuro biology of motivated behaviors. We would also like the book to stand as a personal mark of a cooperative relationship between father and son. This special relationship between the authors gave us an extra dimension of pleasure in writing the book, and it would delight us if it gave anyone else an extra dimension of enjoyment from reading it. One thing we hope happens is that anyone or simply considering entering similar considering a similar partnership, of this book as encouragement. Such re fields, will take the existence lationships are highly satisfying if both parties take care to protect the partnership. When we actually sat down to write the book, we were humbled by the immense literature and the smallness of both our conceived space for putting it down and of our brains for processing all the information.




Exploring the Biological Contributions to Human Health


Book Description

It's obvious why only men develop prostate cancer and why only women get ovarian cancer. But it is not obvious why women are more likely to recover language ability after a stroke than men or why women are more apt to develop autoimmune diseases such as lupus. Sex differences in health throughout the lifespan have been documented. Exploring the Biological Contributions to Human Health begins to snap the pieces of the puzzle into place so that this knowledge can be used to improve health for both sexes. From behavior and cognition to metabolism and response to chemicals and infectious organisms, this book explores the health impact of sex (being male or female, according to reproductive organs and chromosomes) and gender (one's sense of self as male or female in society). Exploring the Biological Contributions to Human Health discusses basic biochemical differences in the cells of males and females and health variability between the sexes from conception throughout life. The book identifies key research needs and opportunities and addresses barriers to research. Exploring the Biological Contributions to Human Health will be important to health policy makers, basic, applied, and clinical researchers, educators, providers, and journalists-while being very accessible to interested lay readers.




Pediatric Andrology


Book Description

The subject matter in this volume was derived from papers presented at the Pediatric Andrology session of the 1st Pan American Congress of Andrology held in Caracas, Venezuela in February 1979, as well as from selected additional manuscripts of interest in this field. Prior to this session, identification of a distinct discipline and specialty devoted to pediatric andrology had not occurred, nor had it been conceptualized. Pediatric andrology encompasses many different areas: disorders of sexual development, structural disease of the genital organs, normal and abnormal puberty, undescended testes, genital tumors, gonadal function and its relationship to growth, virilization, fertility and gender identity all represent areas of specific interest, to name but a few. Andrology itself is a unique field, bringing together clinicians and basic scientists with diverse back grounds. It should be noted that between one-half and three-quarters of the clinicians contributing to this issue conduct basic research as well. It has been this unique blend of basic research and clinical medicine which has done much to unravel many of these problems characteristic of this field.