AUTHOR=Bauman Bradly M. , Yin Weiling , Gore Andrea C. , Wu T. John TITLE=Regulation of Gonadotropin-Releasing Hormone-(1–5) Signaling Genes by Estradiol Is Age Dependent JOURNAL=Frontiers in Endocrinology VOLUME=8 YEAR=2017 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/endocrinology/articles/10.3389/fendo.2017.00282 DOI=10.3389/fendo.2017.00282 ISSN=1664-2392 ABSTRACT=
Gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) is a key regulatory molecule of the hypothalamus–pituitary (PIT)–gonadal (HPG) axis that ultimately leads to the downstream release of estradiol (E2) and progesterone (P). These gonadal steroids feed back to the hypothalamus and PIT to regulate reproductive function and behavior. While GnRH is thought to be the master regulator of reproduction, its metabolic product GnRH-(1–5) is also biologically active. Thimet oligopeptidase 1 (also known as EP24.15) cleaves GnRH to form GnRH-(1–5). GnRH-(1–5) is involved in regulation of the HPG axis, exerting its actions through a pair of orphan G protein-coupled receptors, GPR101 and GPR173. The physiological importance of GnRH-(1–5) signaling has been studied in several contexts, but its potential role during reproductive senescence is poorly understood. We used an ovariectomized (OVX) rat model of reproductive senescence to assess whether and how GnRH-(1–5) signaling genes in hypothalamic subnuclei change in response to aging and/or different estradiol replacement regimens designed to model clinical hormone replacement in women. We found that