Changes in the content of progesterone receptor isoforms and estrogen receptor alpha in the chick brain during embryonic development

Progesterone and estradiol participate in the regulation of several reproductive functions through interaction with intracellular progesterone receptors (PR) and estrogen receptors (ER), respectively. In this work, we determined PR and ER-alpha isoforms content in the brain of chicks of both sexes on days 8 and 13 of embryonic development as well as on the day of hatching by Western blot analysis. PR isoforms protein content increased during embryonic development in both female and male chick brain. The highest PR isoforms content was observed on the day of hatching in both sexes. Interestingly, PR-A content was higher in the brain of chick males than in that of females on day 8 of embryonic development. PR-A/PR-B ratio was higher in the brain of males than in that of females at all ages. We found two ER-alpha isoforms of 66 and 52 kDa; the content of both isoforms was higher in the brain of females than in that of males on days 8 and 13 of embryonic development. An opposite pattern of ER-alpha isoforms content was observed. In males, ER-alpha content increased during embryonic development whereas in the females it decreased during this process. These results indicate that the content of PR and ER-alpha isoforms is related to the degree of brain development in chicks, and suggest that PR and ER-alpha isoforms should exhibit sexual dimorphism in the brain of chicks during embryonic development. (C) 2003 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.