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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2022 Mar 23.
Published in final edited form as: J Neuroendocrinol. 2008 Feb 8;20(4):470–488. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2826.2008.01669.x

Fig. 4.

Fig. 4.

Working model illustrating kisspeptin regulation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal axis in normal (a) and prenatal alcohol exposure (PAE) (b) adult female rats. Kisspeptin released by neurons in the anteroventral periventricular (AVPV) and arcuate nucleus (ARC) stimulates gonadotrophin-releasing hormone (GnRH) release, which induces the release of luteinising hormone (LH) and follicle-stimualting hormone (FSH). The ovaries respond to gonadotrophins by secreting oestradiol, which feeds back to regulate the activity of kisspeptin neurons, inhibiting kisspeptin expression in the ARC and inducing the expression in the AVPV (modified from Dungan et al., 2006). Adult PAE females had a decreased number of kisspeptin-immunoreactive neurons in the ARC, which would result in less GnRH and LH/FSH release, and decreased stimulation of the ovary. We speculate that PAE females show increased sensitivity to oestradiol, which leads to downregulation of kisspeptin-immunoreactive neurones in the ARC. The role of kisspeptin regulation at the level of AVPV is currently under investigation. See text for further discussion. +, Stimulation; − and − − − −, inhibition; ?, unknown action.