CAA: Progesterone Receptor Gene Expression in the Brain

职业进步奖扩大了女性研究人员职业发展的机会。Attardi博士将使用这些资金来增加她的脑解剖学知识，并获得最先进的神经解剖学技术，使她能够检查黄体酮导致促性腺激素激增的促进或抑制的不同作用。黄体酮受体在类固醇/甲状腺核受体家族成员中是不寻常的，因为它存在于除兔外的所有物种的PRa和PRb两种亚型中。此外，有人认为，在特定组织内对黄体酮的反应可能取决于两种同工异构体的相对比例的变化，特别是考虑到这两种同工异构体在发育和内分泌操纵中发生变化。由于这些研究仅使用来自外周系统的组织，因此尚不清楚这两种异构体是否也参与黄体酮在神经组织中的作用机制。Attardi博士现在将检查大脑和垂体中两种黄体酮同种异构体的存在和调节。她将确定这两种异构体在调节雌激素和黄体酮调节促性腺激素分泌的能力中所起的作用。理解这种复杂的神经内分泌机制的整合是非常重要的，因为它是物种延续的基础。

Attardi 9707587 Career Advancement Awards expand the opportunity for women researchers to advance their career. Dr. Attardi will use these funds to increase her knowledge of brain anatomy and to acquire state-of-the-art neuroanatomical techniques to allow her to examine the differential actions of progesterone leading to the facilitation or inhibition of the gonadotropin surge. The progesterone receptor is unusual among members of the steroid/thyroid family of nuclear receptors since, it exists in two isoforms, PRa and PRb, in all species except the rabbit. Moreover, it has been suggested that responsiveness to progesterone within a particular tissue could depend upon changes in the relative ratios of the two isoforms especially given that the two isoforms change developmentally and with endocrine manipulations. Since these studies used only tissue from the peripheral system, it is not clear whether the two isoforms are involved in the mechanism of progesterone action in neural tissue as well. Dr. Attardi will now examine both the presence and the regulation of the two progesterone isoforms in the brain and pituitary. She will determine the role that these two isoforms play in the modulating the ability of estrogen and progesterone to regulate gonadotropin secretion. Understanding the integration of this complex neuroendocrine mechanism is very important since it underlies the perpetuation of the species.