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Testosterone alters the expression of proopiomelanocortin (POMC) mRNA in the neurons of the arcuate nucleus. While observations suggest that both estrogen and androgen receptors (AR) can mediate this action, only a negligible number of POMC neurons has previously been shown to contain estrogen receptor (ER)-alpha. To determine whether the putative action of testosterone is mediated via ER-beta or AR we double immuno- labeled hypothalamic sections from colchicine-pretreated male rats. Only few cells were immunostained for ER-beta and they were never found to co-localize POMC. In spite of the overlap in the anatomical distribution, only 3% of POMC cells appeared to contain AR. These results suggest that sex steroids have an indirect effect on most POMC neurons.
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Fodor et al. (2001) studied this question.
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