Endocrine Abstracts

Reproduction, as essential function for the perpetuation of species, is controlled by precise maturational programs and sophisticated regulatory circuits, which have been the subject of active research. Seminal findings in the last decades of the 20th century set basic dogmas in reproductive endocrinology, including the identification of gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH), as the master hypothalamic signal controlling reproduction, and the initial characterization of complex networks of central transmitters and peripheral hormones, from glutamate and GABA to nitric oxide and leptin, as key modulators of puberty and fertility. In fact, by the turn of the Millennium, there was the perception that the fundamentals of the neuroendocrine systems governing the reproductive axis had been already exposed, thus leaving little room for major conceptual developments in this apparently exhausted field of contemporary Endocrinology. Reality, however, turned out to be much more exiting, so that in the last twenty years, we have witnessed groundbreaking findings in this area, epitomized by the discovery of the reproductive roles of kisspeptins. These have not only revolutionized our understanding of the mechanisms controlling puberty and reproduction, but have also boosted kind of a New-Age in reproductive research, where basic, translational and clinical studies have surfaced novel players, neuroendocrine circuits and molecular regulatory mechanisms responsible for the precise control of the reproductive axis along the lifespan. Some examples of these recent developments will be summarized in this lecture, which aims also to identify new avenues for further progress of this fertile area of modern Endocrinology.