Editorial Focus: Stressed tissue in a calm organism. Comments on 'Cortisol and corticosterone in the songbird immune and nervous systems: local vs. systemic levels during development,' by Schmidt and Soma

摘要

cone are the days of gland-limited hormone production. Estrogens and androgens only come from-the gonad? No: neural and lipid tissue can produce estrogens; adrenals can produce androgens.The story originally started in the 1970s, with the discovery of extra-gonadal aromatase (7, 12). In 1981, Corpechot et al. (2) coined the term "neurosteroid," indicating active steroids that were synthesized in the brain. However, studies focused primarily on in vitro studies, producing estrogens from precursors or labeling enzymes on tissue sections. A classic study in the early 1990s demonstrated the functional consequences of neural aromatase (in vivo) through injection of 3H-labeled testosterone into the telencephalon and recovery of 3H-labeIed estradiol from the jugular (10).