Estrogen and Male Aggression

Women often like blame testosterone in men and while mean complain about estrogens effect on the ladies, but maybe its not so clear cut.

Both testosterone and estrogen are essential for male behavior and interact to control masculinization of the brain and behavior, claims a new published in the April 29 issue of the journal Neuron.

Estrogen  is virtually undetectable in the circulation of most male species but can be derived from circulating testosterone in males and activate the androgen receptor (AR).

In the brain, this testosterone-derived estrogen can control many behaviors that are typically linked to males.

Using genetic manipulation to delete AR specifically in a mouse nervous system, the researchers found that testosterone acts as a precursor to estrogen to masculinize the brain and behavior, and signals via AR to control the levels of male behavioral displays.

Its not what was expected.

“It was known that testosterone and estrogen are essential for typical male behaviors in many vertebrate species,” study senior author Dr. Nirao M. Shah, of the anatomy department at the University of California, San Francisco,

“However, how these two hormones interact to control masculinization of the brain and behavior remained to be established” he said in a cellpress press release.

The researches found that the gentically modified mice still acted like males – fighting and marking territory –but the extent and frequency of typical male behaviors varied between the mutant mice and the other mice.

In conjunction with previous studies, suggests “estrogen masculinizes the neural circuits for mating, fighting and territory marking, and testosterone and estrogen signaling generate the male typical levels of these behaviors,” Shah said.

“It will be interesting in future studies to identify the molecular and circuit level mechanisms that are controlled by these hormones.”

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