A Recent Review of Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenal and Gonadal Axis Regulation in Women and Their Connection as a Basis for the Development of Ovulatory Dysfunction
Author: Babadzhanova, Ekaterina S., Orbetzova, Maria M.
Abstracts:
Multiple factors, such as stress, excessive de viations in body weight (obesity and cachexia), eating disorders, including anorexia nervosa, en ergy-deficient conditions and insulin resistance af fect women’s reproductive health due to dysregu lation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal (HPG) axis and the following ovulatory dysfunction, cate gorized as hypothalamic hypogonadism, that may present with menstrual cycle disturbances and/ or infertility. The kisspeptinergic system is the one that links stress, nutrition and reproductive signals and plays a key role in maintaining normal pulsa tility of gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) and ovulation. In addition to leptin and insulin, elevated corticotropin-releasing hormone (CRH) and the activation of hypothalamic-pituitary-adre nal (HPA) axis are thought to be key modulators of ovulatory dysfunction. Neuroendocrine regu lation of the reproductive processes is a subject of intense research, having in mind the globalincrease in the incidence of infertility.
The purpose of this review is to present the effector elements of the HPG and HPA axis, to gather the available information about the mark ers and regulators, that are known to date – kiss peptins, adipocytokines, appetite modulators, as well as to present some newly discovered neuro peptides (spexin and phoenixin), that are involved in the modulation of reproductive functions, with the potential to reveal new mechanisms in the pathogenesis and to discover new possibilities for the treatment of ovulatory dysfunctions.
