Perinatal-Estrogen-Induced Changes in Gene Expression Related to Brain Sexual Differentiation in Mice

Sexual dimorphism of the behaviors or physiological functions in mammals is mainly due to the sex difference of the brain. The goal of this study is to identify genes mediating sexaul dimorphism of the brain. The large-scale analysis with microarray in the present study is an attempt to obtain the candidate gene(s) mediating the perinatal estrogen effect causing the brain sexual differentiation. Thirty female mice were injected with estradiol benzoate (EB) or vehicle on the day of birth, and the hypothalamus was collected at either 1, 3, 6, 12, or 24 h after the EB injection.