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Regulation of estrogen and phytoestrogen on the dopaminergic systems of amygdala in rats

Dong Xiaoli, Xie Junxia

Department of Physiology，Medical College of Qingdao University. Qingdao 266021,China

Abstract

In vivo fast cyclic voltammetry (FCV) was used to investigate dopamine (DA) release fromamygdala (Amy) of female rats in different phases of estrus cycle, ovaricectomized (OVX) rats and malerats. Tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) immunohistochemistry was employed to measure the numbers of immunore-active neurons in ventral tegmental area (VTA) of midbrain in the rats. We also observed the effect of in-tracerebroventricular injection of phytoestrogen-soy isoflavones on DA release from the Amy. The results areas follows: DA release from the Amy of proestrus female rats was apparently higher than that in estrus, me-taestrus, diestrus female rats and OVX rats. Amy DA release and the numbers of the TH immunoreactiveneurons in VTA showed a significant sex difference. DA release from Amy of female and OVX rats increasedsignificantly within 5 min after i. c. v injection of soy isoflavones, which elicited no effects in male rats. The above -mentioned results suggest that endogenous estrogen may play an important role in regulating the activity of DA neurons in mid-limbic systems，and that soy isoflavones exert an estrogen-like effect on the donamineraie svstems in the Amy.

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Citing This Article：

Dong Xiaoli, Xie Junxia. Regulation of estrogen and phytoestrogen on the dopaminergic systems of amygdala in rats. Acta Physiol Sin 2003; 55 (5): (in Chinese with English abstract).