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In pregnancy and the postpartum period, many women have emotional instability and some suffer from depression. The ovarian steroid hormone milieu is markedly changed during these periods, and this hormonal change may be an important cause of peripartum emotional instability. The amygdala is a central region of emotion, and the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BNST), which is considered to be the extended amygdala, is also involved in the emotional response. The amygdala and BNST are well characterized as target brain regions for ovarian steroid hormones, and this suggests that the functional response of neurons in these regions to hormonal fluctuation is affected in the peripartum period. In this study, we investigated the neuronal morphology in the central (CeA) and basolateral (BLA) nucleus of the amygdala and BNST on gestational days 15 (G15) (mid-gestation) and 20 (G20) (late gestation) and 4days after delivery (P4) (early postpartum) in rat. Golgi staining showed that the dendritic spine density, and particularly the number of mature mushroom-type spines, in the CeA, BLA and BNST was significantly decreased at P4, compared with G15 and G20 and with virgin females in the estrous phase in the normal estrous cycle (Est). Interestingly, the presence of pups after delivery influenced the spine density in the BNST. The density was significantly decreased with pup presence compared with pup absence at P4, and compared with G15, G20 and Est. These results provide fundamental insights into the neuronal basis underlying emotional instability during pregnancy and postpartum., (Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Gonadal hormones have a developmental role in organization of the nervous system that regulates sexually dimorphic behavior. It is well known that androgen secreted from testes in the perinatal period is converted to estrogen by aromatase in rodent brain, and that estrogen and its receptor play a pivotal role in masculinization of brain structure and function. Treatment with flutamide, an androgen receptor (AR) antagonist, during the perinatal period inhibits development of malespecific brain structure and function, suggesting that androgen signaling via AR also influences brain masculinization. In this study, we investigated which stage during the postnatal period is critical for androgen signaling in brain masculinization. The postnatal period was designated as postnatal days (PD) 0-22, and divided into stages I (PD 0-7), II (PD 8-14), and III (PD 15-22). Newborn male rats were given flutamide subcutaneously in each stage. After adulthood, the effects of postnatal flutamide treatment on brain masculinization were evaluated byanalysis of male sexual behavior. Continuous inhibition of AR throughout stages I and II caused a robust reduction of the intromission ratio and ejaculation frequency compared with other groups. AR inhibition in stage I, II, or III did not cause any change. AR inhibition had no effect onmount behavior. These results show that stage-specific AR activation in the first two postnatal weeks may contribute to brain masculinization mediating male sexual behavior in adulthood., (Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) is used for three-dimensional (3-D) analysis of synaptic connections in neuroscience research. However, 3-D reconstruction of the synapses using serial ultrathin sections is a powerful but tedious approach requiring advanced technical skills. High-voltage electron microscopy (HVEM) allows examination of thicker sections of biological specimens due to the increased penetration of the more accelerated electrons, which is useful to analyze the 3-D structure of biological specimens. However, it is still difficult to visualize the neural networks and synaptic connections in 3-D using HVEM because of insufficient and non uniform heavy metal staining in the membranous structures in semi-thin sections. Here, we present the successful chemical 3-D neuroanatomy of the rat spinal dorsal horn at the ultrastructural level as a first step for effective synaptome analysis by applying a high-contrast en bloc staining method to immune-HVEM tomography. Our new approach made it possible to examine many itch-mediating synaptic connections and neural networks in the spinal cord simultaneously using HVEM tomography. This novel 3-D electron microscopy is very useful for the analysis of synaptic structure and the chemical neuroanatomy at the 3-D ultrastructural level., (Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Adrenal corticosteroids readily enter the brain and exert markedly diverse effects, such as stress responses in the target neural cells. These effects are regulated by two receptor systems via the mineralocorticoid receptor (MR) and the glucocorticoid receptor (GR), which are both ligand-dependent transcription factors. Several steroid hormone receptors including GR, estrogen receptor, and androgen receptor, have been shown to move rapidly in the nucleus even after ligand treatment, supposedly corresponding to transcriptional "fine-tuning". We applied fluorescence recovery after photobleaching (FRAP) to assess the mobility of green fluorescent protein (GFP)-tagged GR and -MR in the nucleus of transiently transfected cultured hippocampal neurons. FRAP results showed high mobility of GR and MR in the nucleus. Half-recovery time of GR was longer than that of MR in the presence of 10(-6)M corticosterone (CORT), but shorter in the presence of 10(-9)M CORT. Proteasome inhibition reduced the subnuclear mobility of GR and MR, and increased the transcriptional activity at both concentrations of CORT. We also investigated the differential effects of CORT concentration and proteasome inhibition on the nuclear retention level of these receptors. Our findings may provide intriguing new insights into the dynamics of corticosteroid receptors in neural cells and the molecular basis of stress regulation by these receptors in the hippocampus., (Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Although the expression and distribution of nuclear estrogen receptors in the hippocampus has been described, it has been proposed that the nuclear receptors may not explain all aspects of estrogen function in the hippocampus. Recently, a G protein-coupled receptor for estrogen, GPR30, was identified as a membrane-localized estrogen receptor in several cancer cell lines. In this study, we examined the expression and intracellular distribution of GPR30 in the rat hippocampal formation. We found expression of GPR30 in pyramidal cells of CA1-3 and granule cells of the dentate gyrus at both mRNA and protein levels. Specific markers for intracellular organelles and immunoelectron microscopy revealed that GPR30 was mainly localized to the Golgi apparatus and partially in the endoplasmic reticulum of the neuron but could not detect the protein at the cell surface. Expression levels were not different among male, female in proestrus and female in estrus at the adult stage, but were higher in newborn male than newborn female.

The effects of estrogen on the neurons of the medial preoptic area of the ovariectomized rat were immunohistochemically investigated using antisera to calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) and methionine-enkephalin (Met-Enk). To visualize CGRP- and Met-Enk-immunoreactive (IR) cell somata, colchicine was injected into the cerebroventricle. CGRP- and Met-Enk-IR neurons were distributed in the medial preoptic nucleus (MPN) but few in the periventricular preoptic nucleus (PPN) in the ovariectomized rat. After estrogen treatment, CGRP immunoreactivity was markedly increased in the PPN and MPN, whereas Met-Enk immunoreactivity was increased in the MPN. These results, along with our previous data, suggest that estrogen accelerates CGRP- and Met-Enk expression in a different manner in the PPN and MPN neurons.

The subcellular localization of estrogen receptor (ER) was investigated in the preoptic area of ovariectomized female rats by electron microscopic immunohistochemistry, using a monoclonal antibody to ER. ER-immunoreactivity was localized in the nuclei of neurons of the periventricular preoptic nucleus (Pe) and the medial preoptic area (MPA). ER-immunoreactivity had a speckled pattern in the nucleus, but was not observed in the nucleolus or cytoplasm. After intraventricular colchicine treatment, ER-immunoreactivity within the nucleus was reduced drastically in neurons of the Pe and the MPA. The possible mechanism by which colchicine alters ER-immunoreactivity is mentioned.

The distribution of neuropeptide Y (NPY) immunoreactivity in the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) and the lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN) of 5 kinds of mammals was studied using the peroxidase-anti-peroxidase method. In the SCN of the rat, hamster, chipmunk and cat, NPY-immunoreactive fibers were detected, particularly in the ventral part. In the 3 rodents and the cat, the somata and fibers of NPY-immunoreactive neurons were observed in the LGN. However, immunoreactive structures were not found in the SCN or LGN of the monkey. These results indicate that NPY immunoreactivity in the monkey LGN-SCN tract is absent.