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Review
. 2021 Mar 19;22(6):3139.
doi: 10.3390/ijms22063139.

Sexual Dimorphism in Glucocorticoid Stress Response

Marie-Pierre Moisan  1
Affiliations
Review

Sexual Dimorphism in Glucocorticoid Stress Response

Marie-Pierre Moisan. Int J Mol Sci. .

Abstract

Chronic stress is encountered in our everyday life and is thought to contribute to a number of diseases. Many of these stress-related disorders display a sex bias. Because glucocorticoid hormones are the main biological mediator of chronic stress, researchers have been interested in understanding the sexual dimorphism in glucocorticoid stress response to better explain the sex bias in stress-related diseases. Although not yet demonstrated for glucocorticoid regulation, sex chromosomes do influence sex-specific biology as soon as conception. Then a transient rise in testosterone start to shape the male brain during the prenatal period differently to the female brain. These organizational effects are completed just before puberty. The cerebral regions implicated in glucocorticoid regulation at rest and after stress are thereby impacted in a sex-specific manner. After puberty, the high levels of all gonadal hormones will interact with glucocorticoid hormones in specific crosstalk through their respective nuclear receptors. In addition, stress occurring early in life, in particular during the prenatal period and in adolescence will prime in the long-term glucocorticoid stress response through epigenetic mechanisms, again in a sex-specific manner. Altogether, various molecular mechanisms explain sex-specific glucocorticoid stress responses that do not exclude important gender effects in humans.

Keywords: cortisol; glucocorticoid; sex dimorphism; steroids; stress.

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Conflict of interest statement

The author declares no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Representation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, leading to the secretion of glucocorticoid hormones (cortisol in humans, corticosterone in rodents). Prefrontal cortex and hippocampus regulating negatively the HPA axis have a red arrow whereas amygdala that regulates the HPA axis positively has a green arrow pointing to the hypothalamus. Glucocorticoids regulate their own synthesis by feedback controls (thin blue arrow).
Figure 2
Figure 2
Genetic, organizational, and programming effects involved in sexual dimorphism of glucocorticoid stress response across development.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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