IMR Press / FBS / Volume 3 / Issue 1 / DOI: 10.2741/S150

Frontiers in Bioscience-Scholar (FBS) is published by IMR Press from Volume 13 Issue 1 (2021). Previous articles were published by another publisher on a subscription basis, and they are hosted by IMR Press on imrpress.com as a courtesy and upon agreement with Frontiers in Bioscience.

Article
Kisspeptins and the neuroendocrine control of reproduction
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1 Department of Physiology and Biophysics, University of Washington. Seattle, WA, 98185
2 Department of Cell Biology, Physiology and Immunology, University of Cordoba; CIBER Fisiopatologia de la Obesidad y Nutricion; and Instituto Maimonides de Investigaciones Biomedicas de Cordoba (IMIBIC), Cordoba, Spain

*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.

 

Front. Biosci. (Schol Ed) 2011, 3(1), 267–275; https://doi.org/10.2741/S150
Published: 1 January 2011
Abstract

Reproductive function, as essential for the survival of species, is under the control of a vast array of regulatory factors that ultimately modulate the release of GnRH. However, GnRH neurons lack the ability to directly sense most of these signals; hence, intermediate pathways are required. Kisspeptins have recently emerged as a pivotal piece in the reproductive brain, serving primarily as conduits for central and peripheral regulatory cues of GnRH release. Different populations of hypothalamic Kiss1 neurons have been described, which mediate either the positive or negative feedback of sex steroids in the sexually differentiated brain of rodents. Kisspeptins, however, are not the only recently-appointed contributors to this integrative process. Indeed, neurokinin B (NKB) and dynorphin have been described to co-localize within Kiss1 neurons at the arcuate nucleus in different species, and may contribute to the regulation of kisspeptin release. In this work, we provide a concise overview of the major reproductive headlines of kisspeptins, focusing on their role as mediators of sex steroid feedback and their interaction with key neurotransmitters, such as NKB and dynorphin.

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