Other Sexually Dimorphic Areas in The Brain
Ventromedial nucleus of the hypothalamus (VMN) has long been considered as a sexually dimorphic nucleus. It is an important region for regulating the sexual responses in female rodents. The neurons within VMN have significant estrogen-dependent functional and structural plasticity. The synaptic organization of the VMN is sexually dimorphic. Females have more dendrite chemical synapses within VMN while males have more somatic synapses within that region. In addition, the size of postsynaptic densities of axospinous and axosomatic synapses is sexually dimorphic, with males having larger density than females. Estrogen plays an important role in modulating the sexually dimorphic synaptic connectivity of VMN. Estradiol levels are high on proestrus rats and return to low levels on diestrus rats. The volume of cell bodies within VMN in proestrus rats and male rats is larger than diestrus rats. Also, proestrus rats have significantly higher synapse density in VMN than diestrus rats. Moreover, Gamma-aminobutyric acid plays a role in VMN development such as sexual differentiation.
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