Sex- and age-related P75 neurotrophin receptor expression in the human supraoptic nucleus

The human supraoptic nucleus (SON) is the main production site of plasma va sopressin, Previously, using the Golgi apparatus and cell size as measures for neuronal metabolic activity, an activation of vasopressinergic neurons was found during ageing in the human SON in women but not in men. We hypoth esized that the low-affinity neurotrophin receptor p75 (p75(NTR)) might be involved in the mechanism of activation of vasopressin neurons in postmenop ausal women, since this receptor was found to be expressed in the SON neuro ns of aged individuals, and because p75(NTR) expression was shown to be sup pressed by estrogens. Therefore, we investigated whether p75(NTR) immunorea ctivity in the SON neurons was age- and sex-dependent. For this purpose, we studied paraffin sections of the SON in 32 postmortem brains of control pa tients ranging in age from 29 to 94 years with an anti-p75(NTR) antibody an d determined the area of p75(NTR) immunoreactivity per neuron using an imag e analysis system. To study whether the p75(NTR) might also participate in the activation of SON neurons, we related Golgi apparatus size to the area of p75(NTR) immunoreactivity per cell in the same patients. We found that t he area of p75(NTR) immunoreactivity per cell correlated indeed significant ly with age and with Golgi apparatus size only in women but not in men. The refore, our results suggest that p75(NTR) is involved in postmenopausal act ivation of vasopressinergic neurons in the human SON. Copyright (C) 2000 S. Karger AG, Basel.