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Biology of Reproduction, Vol 25, 413-419, Copyright © 1981 by Society for the Study of Reproduction

Role of the Gonads in the Histologic Aging of the Hypothalamic Arcuate Nucleus

H. SCHIPPER 1, J. R. BRAWER 1, F. NELSON 2, L. S. FELICIO 2, , and C. E. FINCH 2

1 Division of Experimental Medicine, Department of Anatomy, and Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, McGill University School of Medicine, Montreal, Quebec, Canada H3A 1A1
2 The Andrus Gerontology Center and the Department of Biological Sciences, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California 90007


The effect of aging on microglial and astrocytic activity in the hypothalamic arcuate nucleus was measured in young and middle-aged Wistar rats and C57BL/6J mice. These putative correlates of neuronal degeneration increased significantly between 6 and 14 months of age in intact female and male rats, and between 4 and 13 months in female mice. Although astrocytic activity increased steadily between 4, 8.5, and 14 months in female rats, microglial activity did not increase until 14 months.

Because glial hyperactivity can be produced in young rats by exogenous estrogen, long-term gonadectomized animals were examined to determine if its development during normal aging is also dependent on exposure to gonadal steroids. Gonadectomy at 2 months of age significantly suppressed gliosis in older female rats and mice, but produced only a slight (nonsignificant) decrease in male rats.

These data indicate that gliosis occurs spontaneously in the aging arcuate nucleus. Its development in the female is primarily dependent on chronic exposure to an ovarian product, presumably estradiol. However, in the male the testes play little if any role. The differential rates of astrocytic and microglial activity in female rats may reflect differential sensitivity to the ovarian product(s) responsible for their development.

 Submitted on February 23, 1981
Accepted on May 1, 1981




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Science, November 12, 1982; 218(4573): 684 - 686.
[Abstract] [PDF]


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Copyright © 1981 by the Society for the Study of Reproduction.