Primate brain makes oestrogen

摘要

Ovaries are the main producers of oestrogen but when they give out, the brain in monkeys can take over in making the hormone. Ei Terasawa and her colleagues at the University of Wisconsin in Madison removed the ovaries of female rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatto.) and briefly stimulated the animals' brains with oestrogen or an electrical current. The brain's hypothalamus region began producing its own oestrogen, along with other hormones involved in reproduction.