Objective(s): The purpose of this study was to investigate the change in plasma anandamide (AEA) levels throughout the normal menstrual cycle, and to analyze the relationship among AEA, sex steroids and gonadotrophins. Materials and Methods: The patients were fertile women with normal menstrual cycle, proposed to get in vitro fertilization (IVF) treatment due to oviduct obstruction or male infe...

In lizards as in many other kinds of animals, strong maternal effects on the phenotypic traits of hatchlings are frequently reported. One plausible non-genetic mechanism that might produce such differences among clutches involves maternal allocation of steroid hormones. Lizard eggs often display considerable inter-clutch variation in the quantities of maternally allocated steroids, and exogenou...

Steroid hormones are essential for the normal function of most organ systems in vertebrates. Reproductive activities in females and males, such as the differentiation, growth and maintenance of the reproductive system, require signaling by sex steroid hormones. Although extensively studied in mammals and a few fish and bird species, the evolution and molecular mechanisms associated with the nuc...

© 2012 TERRAPUB, Tokyo. All rights reserved. doi:10.5047/absm.2012.00502.0029 and Kobayashi 2010). Most of the non-migratory forms will live continuously in their natal rivers throughout their lives (Fig. 1). Regardless of these life history types, most salmonids will spawn in freshwater environments, mainly in their natal rivers (Fig. 1) (Quinn 2005). From these phenomena, salmonids are consid...

In mammals, prenatal exposure to sex steroid hormones may have profound effects on later behavior and fitness and have been reported under both laboratory and field conditions. Anogenital distance is a non-invasive measure of prenatal exposure to sex steroid hormones. While we know that intra-uterine position and litter sex ratio influence anogenital distance, there are other, heretofore unstud...

INTRODUCTION Approximately 80 to 85% of cases of hyperadrenocorticism in both dogs and cats are due to pituitary dependent hyperadrenocorticism (PDH), with the remainder due to an adrenocortical tumor (AT). Cortisol is the most common secretory product of the adrenal gland in hyperadrenocorticism, but excessive production of other steroid hormones (sex hormones, mineralocorticoids) has been rep...

Steroid hormones of gonadal origin act on the neonatal brain to produce sex differences that underlie adult reproductive physiology and behavior. Neuronal sex differences occur on a variety of levels, including differences in regional volume and/or cell number, morphology, physiology, molecular signaling, and gene expression. In the rodent, many of these sex differences are determined by steroi...

The discovery of a plasma membrane ABC protein that exports steroids in yeast highlights the possibility that similar membrane sorting systems in mammalian cells may modulate the access of steroids to their receptors.