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Estrogens in Human Male Gonadotropin Secretion and Testicular Physiology From Infancy to Late Puberty
Several reports in humans as well as transgenic mouse models have shown that estrogens play an important role in male reproduction and fertility. Estrogen receptor alpha (ERα) and beta (ERβ) are expressed in different male tissues including the brain. The estradiol-binding protein GPER1 also mediate...
Autores principales: | , , , , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2020
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7051936/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32158430 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fendo.2020.00072 |
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author | Guercio, Gabriela Saraco, Nora Costanzo, Mariana Marino, Roxana Ramirez, Pablo Berensztein, Esperanza Rivarola, Marco A. Belgorosky, Alicia |
author_facet | Guercio, Gabriela Saraco, Nora Costanzo, Mariana Marino, Roxana Ramirez, Pablo Berensztein, Esperanza Rivarola, Marco A. Belgorosky, Alicia |
author_sort | Guercio, Gabriela |
collection | PubMed |
description | Several reports in humans as well as transgenic mouse models have shown that estrogens play an important role in male reproduction and fertility. Estrogen receptor alpha (ERα) and beta (ERβ) are expressed in different male tissues including the brain. The estradiol-binding protein GPER1 also mediates estrogen action in target tissues. In human testes a minimal ERα expression during prepuberty along with a marked pubertal up-regulation in germ cells has been reported. ERβ expression was detected mostly in spermatogonia, primary spermatocytes, and immature spermatids. In Sertoli cells ERβ expression increases with age. The aromatase enzyme (cP450arom), which converts androgens to estrogens, is widely expressed in human tissues (including gonads and hypothalamus), even during fetal life, suggesting that estrogens are also involved in human fetal physiology. Moreover, cP450arom is expressed in the early postnatal testicular Leydig cells and spermatogonia. Even though the aromatase complex is required for estrogen synthesis, its biological relevance is also related to the regulation of the balance between androgens and estrogens in different tissues. Knockout mouse models of aromatase (ArKO) and estrogen receptors (ERKOα, ERKOβ, and ERKOαβ) provide an important tool to study the effects of estrogens on the male reproductive physiology including the gonadal axis. High basal serum FSH levels were reported in adult aromatase-deficient men, suggesting that estrogens are involved in the negative regulatory gonadotropin feedback. However, normal serum gonadotropin levels were observed in an aromatase-deficient boy, suggesting a maturational pattern role of estrogen in the regulation of gonadotropin secretion. Nevertheless, the role of estrogens in primate testis development and function is controversial and poorly understood. This review addresses the role of estrogens in gonadotropin secretion and testicular physiology in male humans especially during childhood and puberty. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-7051936 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2020 |
publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-70519362020-03-10 Estrogens in Human Male Gonadotropin Secretion and Testicular Physiology From Infancy to Late Puberty Guercio, Gabriela Saraco, Nora Costanzo, Mariana Marino, Roxana Ramirez, Pablo Berensztein, Esperanza Rivarola, Marco A. Belgorosky, Alicia Front Endocrinol (Lausanne) Endocrinology Several reports in humans as well as transgenic mouse models have shown that estrogens play an important role in male reproduction and fertility. Estrogen receptor alpha (ERα) and beta (ERβ) are expressed in different male tissues including the brain. The estradiol-binding protein GPER1 also mediates estrogen action in target tissues. In human testes a minimal ERα expression during prepuberty along with a marked pubertal up-regulation in germ cells has been reported. ERβ expression was detected mostly in spermatogonia, primary spermatocytes, and immature spermatids. In Sertoli cells ERβ expression increases with age. The aromatase enzyme (cP450arom), which converts androgens to estrogens, is widely expressed in human tissues (including gonads and hypothalamus), even during fetal life, suggesting that estrogens are also involved in human fetal physiology. Moreover, cP450arom is expressed in the early postnatal testicular Leydig cells and spermatogonia. Even though the aromatase complex is required for estrogen synthesis, its biological relevance is also related to the regulation of the balance between androgens and estrogens in different tissues. Knockout mouse models of aromatase (ArKO) and estrogen receptors (ERKOα, ERKOβ, and ERKOαβ) provide an important tool to study the effects of estrogens on the male reproductive physiology including the gonadal axis. High basal serum FSH levels were reported in adult aromatase-deficient men, suggesting that estrogens are involved in the negative regulatory gonadotropin feedback. However, normal serum gonadotropin levels were observed in an aromatase-deficient boy, suggesting a maturational pattern role of estrogen in the regulation of gonadotropin secretion. Nevertheless, the role of estrogens in primate testis development and function is controversial and poorly understood. This review addresses the role of estrogens in gonadotropin secretion and testicular physiology in male humans especially during childhood and puberty. Frontiers Media S.A. 2020-02-25 /pmc/articles/PMC7051936/ /pubmed/32158430 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fendo.2020.00072 Text en Copyright © 2020 Guercio, Saraco, Costanzo, Marino, Ramirez, Berensztein, Rivarola and Belgorosky. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms. |
spellingShingle | Endocrinology Guercio, Gabriela Saraco, Nora Costanzo, Mariana Marino, Roxana Ramirez, Pablo Berensztein, Esperanza Rivarola, Marco A. Belgorosky, Alicia Estrogens in Human Male Gonadotropin Secretion and Testicular Physiology From Infancy to Late Puberty |
title | Estrogens in Human Male Gonadotropin Secretion and Testicular Physiology From Infancy to Late Puberty |
title_full | Estrogens in Human Male Gonadotropin Secretion and Testicular Physiology From Infancy to Late Puberty |
title_fullStr | Estrogens in Human Male Gonadotropin Secretion and Testicular Physiology From Infancy to Late Puberty |
title_full_unstemmed | Estrogens in Human Male Gonadotropin Secretion and Testicular Physiology From Infancy to Late Puberty |
title_short | Estrogens in Human Male Gonadotropin Secretion and Testicular Physiology From Infancy to Late Puberty |
title_sort | estrogens in human male gonadotropin secretion and testicular physiology from infancy to late puberty |
topic | Endocrinology |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7051936/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32158430 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fendo.2020.00072 |
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