Brain sexual differentiation is a developmental process leading to the establishment of stable neural sex differences. In birds and rodents, this process is largely driven by estrogens during a critical period. In rodents, estrogens drive the masculinization of the brain, a process that partly depends on microglia. In contrast, in birds, estrogens produced by females induce demasculinization, but whether microglia are involved in this process is unknown. This study assessed whether microglial number, morphology, and/or activity differ between the sexes in selected regions of the developing quail brain and whether they are influenced by estrogens. We found a robust female-biased sex difference in microglial numbers between embryonic day 9 and 12 in the medial preoptic nucleus (POM), a key region for the expression of male sexual behavior. This difference relies on estrogens produced during the sensitive period. Although most embryonic microglia express iNOS, the expression of iNOS in individual microglia does not differ between sexes. Finally, microglial number and the expression of iNOS were not affected by the microglia inhibitor minocycline. Together, these results revealed an estrogen-dependent sex difference in microglia during the critical period for the sexual differentiation of the quail brain. This difference mirrors the different role of estrogens in the development of birds and rodents and suggests a role for microglia in the sexual differentiation of the brain of birds, as in rodents, thus supporting the hypothesis of a conserved role of the neuroimmune system in the organization of the brain by estrogens.
Keywords: Japanese quail; brain sexual differentiation; critical period; estrogens; microglia; sex differences.
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