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Deletion Of Bax Eliminates Sex Differences In The Mouse Forebrain, Nancy Forger, Greta J. Rosen, Elizabeth M. Waters, Dena A. Jacob, Richard B. Simerly, Geert De Vries

Neuroscience Institute Faculty Publications

Several of the best-studied sex differences in the mammalian brain are ascribed to the hormonal control of cell death. This conclusion is based primarily on correlations between pyknotic cell counts in development and counts of mature neurons in adulthood; the molecular mechanisms of hormone-regulated, sexually dimorphic cell death are unknown. We asked whether Bax, a member of the Bcl-2 family of proteins that is required for cell death in many developing neurons, might be essential for sex differences in neuron number. We compared Bax knockout mice and their WT siblings, focusing on two regions of the mouse forebrain that show …