Neuroendocrinology Of Aging

JOSEPH MEITES The idea that the endocrine system is involved in aging processes is as old as the beginnings of endocrinology. The first endocrine experiment related to aging was reported by Brown-Sequard, who is usually re garded as the "father of endocrinology. " In 1889, at the age of 72 years, he reported that he had succeeded in rejuvenating himself by injections of testicular extracts from dogs and guinea pigs. Although the favorable effects observed may have been due mainly to the powers of auto suggestion, his reports created a considerable interest in endocrinology and its relation to aging, and eventually led to the use of estrogens for treating certain pre-and postmenopausal symptoms in women, and an drogens for treating some symptoms in aging men. Up to about the 1960's, the relatively few studies on endocrine-aging relationships dealt mainly with changes in weight and histological appearance of endocrine organs in aging animals and human subjects, and included a limited number of measurements of endocrine function by bioassays and chem ical (for steroids) procedures. Within these limitations, gerontological investigators were unable to establish any definite relationships between endocrine functions and aging processes, with the exception of the con nection between reproductive decline and gonadal and pituitary activity.

It is the purpose of this volume to present a representative sampling of those neural and hormonal studies which have been the focus of the most intense interest in the recent gerontological research. To this end we have been fortunate to enlist the aid of some of the most competent and innovative investigators in the field. More than this, however, an attempt has been made to provide detailed methodological as well as theoretical evaluation for the areas considered. It is our hope that those researchers interested in this area of regulation during aging will be able to utilize the information contained herein as a basis both for critical analysis as well as for the designing and execution of further experiments in this more important area.

The communication between the hypothalamus, pituitary, and gonad is bi-directional, and alterations of the communication in the circuitry, as often occurs during aging and drug abuse, results in acyclicity, hypogonadism, and impotence. This important reference covers topics on the neuroendocrine control mechanisms governing the reproductive process in both males and females. It discusses the importance of the differentiation of the neuroendocrine brain during the developmental period for the normal reproductive process. It also summarizes the effects of prenatal drug abuse on the differentiation of the neuroendocrine brain development and how this alteration induces abnormalities in the reproduction process. This comprehensive volume compares the effects of various psycoactive drugs on the maintenance of reproduction and describes the changes in the reproductive neurendocrine axis during aging.