Central organization of androgen-sensitive pathways to the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis: Implications for individual differences in responses to homeostatic threat and predisposition to disease

Despite clear evidence of the potency by which sex steroids operate on the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis and genuine sex differences in disorders related to HPA dysfunction, the biological significance of this remains largely ignored. Stress-induced increases in circulating glucocorticoid levels serve to meet the metabolic demands of homeostatic threat head-on. Thus, the nature of the stress-adrenal axis is to protect the organism. As one develops, matures, and ages, still newer and competing physiological and environmental demands are encountered. These changing constraints are also met by shifts in sex steroid release, placing this class of steroids beyond the traditional realm of reproductive function. Here we focus on the dose-related and glucocorticoid-interactive nature by which testosterone operates on stress-induced HPA activation. This provides an overview on how to exploit these characteristics towards developing an anatomical framework of testosterone's actions in the brain, and expands upon the idea that centrally projecting arginine vasopressin circuits in the brain act to register and couple testosterone's effects on neuroendocrine and behavioural responses to stress. More generally, the work presented here underscores how a dual adrenal and gonadal systems approach assist in unmasking the bases by which individuals resist or succumb to stress. (c) 2005 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.