Gonadectomy and hormone replacement exert region- and enzyme isoform-specific effects on monoamine oxidase and catechol-O-methyltransferase activity in prefrontal cortex and neostriatum of adult male rats.

Sex differences and gonadal hormone influences are well known for diverse aspects of forebrain amine and indolamine neurotransmitter systems, the cognitive and affective functions they govern and their malfunction in mental illness. This study explored whether hormone regulation/dysregulation of these systems could be related to gonadal steroid effects on catechol-O-methyltransferase and monoamine oxidase which are principal enzymatic controllers of forebrain dopamine, serotonin and norepinephrine levels. Driven by male over female differences in cortical enzyme activities, by male-specific associations between monoamine oxidase and catechol-O-methyltransferase gene polymorphisms and cognitive and dysfunction in disease and by male-specific consequences of gene knockouts in mice, the question of hormone sensitivity was addressed here using a male rat model where prefrontal dopamine levels and related behaviors are also known to be affected. Specifically, quantitative O-methylation and oxidative deamination assays were used to compare the activities of catechol-O-methyltransferase's soluble and membrane-bound isoforms and of monoamine oxidase's A and B isoforms in the pregenual medial prefrontal cortex and dorsal striatum of male rats that were sham operated, gonadectomized or gonadectomized and supplemented with testosterone propionate or with estradiol for 28 days. These studies revealed significant effects of hormone replacement but not gonadectomy on the soluble but not the membrane-bound isorfom of catechol-O-methyltransferase in both striatum and cortex. A significant, cortex-specific testosterone-but not estradiol-attenuated effect (increase) of gonadectomy on monoamine oxidase's A but not B isoform was also observed. Although none of these actions suggest potential roles in the regulation/dysregulation of prefrontal dopamine, the suppressive effects of testosterone on cortical monoamine oxidase-A that were observed could have bearing on the increased incidence of cognitive deficits and symptoms of depression and anxiety that are repeatedly observed in males in conditions of hypogonadalism related to aging, other biological factors or in prostate cancer where androgen deprivation is used as a neoadjuvant treatment.