Journal
JOURNAL OF COMPARATIVE PHYSIOLOGY B-BIOCHEMICAL SYSTEMIC AND ENVIRONMENTAL PHYSIOLOGY
Volume 184, Issue 8, Pages 1055-1063Publisher
SPRINGER HEIDELBERG
DOI: 10.1007/s00360-014-0859-3
Keywords
Androgen receptor; Adrenal cortex; Testosterone; Apoptosis; Sand rat
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Funding
- Algerian Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research
- Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry (Munich, Germany)
- Life and Health Sciences Research Institute (ICVS) of the University of Minho (Braga, Portugal)
- Universite Catholique de Lyon (France)
- Algerian-French collaborative Project [09 MDU 756]
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The wild sand rat, Psammomys obesus, displays seasonal variations in adrenocortical activity that parallel those of testicular activity, indicating functional cross-talk between the hypothalamo-pituitary-adrenal and hypothalamo-pituitary-gonadal axes. In the present study, we examined androgen receptor (AR)-mediated actions of testicular steroids in the regulation of adrenocortical function in the sand rat. Specifically, we examined the expression of AR in the adrenal cortex, as well as adrenal apoptosis in male sand rats that had been surgically castrated or castrated and supplemented with testosterone; biochemical indices of adrenocortical function and hormone profiles were also measured. Orchiectomy was followed by an increase in adrenocorticotropic hormone secretion from the anterior pituitary and subsequently, increased adrenocortical activity; the latter was evidenced by orchiectomy-induced increases in the adrenal content of cholesterol and lipids as well as adrenal hypertrophy (seen as an elevation of the RNA/DNA ratio). Further, androgen deprivation respectively up- and downregulated the incidence of apoptosis within the glucocorticoid-producing zona fasciculata and sex steroid-producing zona reticularis. Interestingly, orchiectomy resulted in increased expression of AR in the zona fasciculata. All of the orchiectomy-induced cellular and biochemical responses were reversible after testosterone substitution therapy. Together, these data suggest that adrenocortical activity in the sand rat is seasonally modulated by testicular androgens that act through AR located in the adrenal cortex itself.
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