title: Sex differences in cells expressing green fluorescent protein under the control of the estrogen receptor-α promoter in the hypothalamus of mice.
abstract: Estradiol that originates from testicular testosterone and binds to estrogen receptor-α (ERα) during developing period acts to organize the male-type brain in mice. Here, we examined transgenic mice expressing green fluorescent protein (GFP) under the control of the ERα promoter, in which ERα-expressing cells in the brain can be visualized by GFP. Fluorescence microscopy revealed the existence of many GFP-expressing cells in the medial preoptic area, medial preoptic nucleus (MPN), bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BNST), and striohypothalamic nucleus (StHy) of adult transgenic mice. Neuronal nuclear antigen, a neuron marker, but not glial fibrillary acidic protein, an astrocyte marker, was mostly expressed by GFP-expressing cells. Analysis of GFP expression area showed that adult females had higher GFP expression in a region including the ventral part of the BNST, StHy, and dorsal part of the MPN than in adult males. Such female-biased sex difference was also found in transgenic pups on postnatal day 5 and 8. The GFP expression area of adult females was decreased by postnatal treatment with testosterone or estradiol. These results indicate that GFP visualizes a sex difference of ERα-expressing neurons. The transgenic mice may be useful for the analysis of the sexual differentiation of the brain.
authors.affiliation: Division of Life Science, Graduate School of Science and Engineering, Saitama University, 255 Shimo-Okubo, Sakura-ku, Saitama City, Saitama 338-8570, Japan.
authors.forename: Chaw
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Kyi-Tha-Thu
authors.affiliation: Division of Life Science, Graduate School of Science and Engineering, Saitama University, 255 Shimo-Okubo, Sakura-ku, Saitama City, Saitama 338-8570, Japan.
authors.forename: Kota
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Okoshi
authors.affiliation: Division of Life Science, Graduate School of Science and Engineering, Saitama University, 255 Shimo-Okubo, Sakura-ku, Saitama City, Saitama 338-8570, Japan.
authors.forename: Hiroto
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Ito
authors.affiliation: Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology, Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine, Kawaramachi Hirokoji, Kamigyo-ku, Kyoto 602-8566, Japan.
authors.forename: Ken-Ichi
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Matsuda
authors.affiliation: Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology, Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine, Kawaramachi Hirokoji, Kamigyo-ku, Kyoto 602-8566, Japan.
authors.forename: Mitsuhiro
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kawata
authors.affiliation: Division of Life Science, Graduate School of Science and Engineering, Saitama University, 255 Shimo-Okubo, Sakura-ku, Saitama City, Saitama 338-8570, Japan. Electronic address: stsuka@mail.saitama-u.ac.jp.
authors.forename: Shinji
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Tsukahara
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D047628:Estrogen Receptor alpha / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D005260:Female; D017930:Genes, Reporter; D049452:Green Fluorescent Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D007031:Hypothalamus / Q000378:metabolism*; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D008822:Mice, Transgenic; D008856:Microscopy, Fluorescence / Q000379:methods*; D009474:Neurons / Q000378:metabolism*; D011401:Promoter Regions, Genetic; D012727:Sex Characteristics
chemical_list: D047628:Estrogen Receptor alpha; D049452:Green Fluorescent Proteins
keywords: Estradiol; Estrogen receptor-α; Sex difference; Sexual differentiation