INVESTIGADORES
RIVAROLA Maria Angelica
artículos
Título:
Stress and the reproductive axis
Autor/es:
DONNA TOUFEXIS ; MARIA ANGELICA RIVAROLA; HERNAN LARA; VICTOR VIAU
Revista:
JOURNAL OF NEUROENDOCRINOLOGY.
Editorial:
WILEY-BLACKWELL PUBLISHING, INC
Referencias:
Lugar: Londres; Año: 2014 vol. 26 p. 573 - 583
ISSN:
0953-8194
Resumen:
There exists a reciprocal relationship between the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) and the hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal (HPG) axes wherein the activation of one affects the function of the other and vice versa. Alterations in maternal care can produce significant effects on both HPG and HPA physiology and behaviour in the offspring at adulthood. For example, changes in reproductive behaviour induced by altered maternal care may alter the expression of sex hormone receptors like ERα that govern sexual behaviour, and may be particularly important in determining the sexual strategies utilized by females. Stress in adulthood continues to mediate HPG activity in females through activation of a sympathetic neural pathway originating in the hypothalamus and releasing norepinephrine (NE) into the ovary, which produces a non-cyclic anovulatory ovary that develops cysts. In the opposite direction, sex differences and sex steroid hormones regulate the HPA axis. For example, although serotonin (5-HT) has a stimulatory effect on the HPA axis in humans and rodents that is mediated by the 5-HT1A receptor, only male rodents respond to 5-HT1A antagonism to show increased corticosterone responses to stress. Furthermore, oestrogen appears to decrease 5-HT1A receptor function at presynaptic sites, yet increase 5-HT1A receptor expression at postsynaptic sites. These mechanisms could explain heightened stress HPA axis responses in females compared to males. Studies on female rhesus macaques show that chronic stress in socially subordinate female monkeys produces a distinct behavioral phenotype that is largely unaffected by oestrogen, a hypo-responsive HPA axis that is hypersensitive to the modulating effects of oestrogen, and changes in 5-HT1A receptor binding in the hippocampus and hypothalamus of social subordinate female monkeys that are restored or inverted by oestrogen replacement. This review summarizes all of the abovementioned studies, which underscore the profound effect that the interaction of the reproductive and stress axes may have on human reproductive health and emotional wellbeing