Brain-Endocrine Interaction: Are Some Effects of ACTH and Adrenocortical Hormones on Neuroendocrine Regulation and Behaviour Mediated Via Central Catecholamine Neurons?

Abstract

During the last decade it has become increasingly clear that hormonal steroids and pituitary hormones exert important actions on the brain influencing particularly neuroendocrine and behavioural functions (Martini and Ganong 1966, Ganong and Martini 1967, 1969, Martir, i et al. 1970, Martini and Meites 1970, De Wied and Weijnen 1970). Many physiological, pharmacological and biochemica] studies suggest that the central catecholamine (CA) neurons could be involved in the control of the secretions of the various releasing and inhibitory factors regulating the secretion of the hormones from the anterior pituitary (Sawyer et al. 1949, Stefano et al. 1965, Donoso and Stefano 1967, Fuxe et al. 1967, Stefano and Donoso 1967, Fuxe and Hokfelt 1967, 1969, Schneider and McCann 1969, Kamberi et al. 1969) and various behavioural functions (Seiden and Carlsson 1964, Carlsson 1966, Hansson 1967, Stein 1968, Randrup and Munkvad 1968, Reis and Fuxe 1968, Arbuthnott et al. 1971). Of great interest is a small tubero-in fundibular DA system (Jonsson et al. 1971a, b, c) which probably is involved in the control of gonadotrophin secretion (Fuxe et al. 1967).