Steroid 5alpha-reductase (5alpha-R) is well known as the enzyme converting progesterone and other steroid hormones to their 5alpha-reduced metabolites and has been reported to be localized in both neuronal and glial cells in the brain. Previously, the enzyme activity in glial cells has been shown to be enhanced either by coculturing with neuronal cells or by adding the conditioned medium of neuronal cells, suggesting a possible implication of neuro-glial interactions in the regulation of neurosteroid metabolism in the brain. In the present studies, the effects of adrenergic agonists on 5alpha-R mRNA and protein levels in rat C6 glioma cells were examined as one of the model experiments for investigating the influence of neuronal activity on the expression of 5alpha-R gene in the glial cell. The direct challenge of beta-adrenergic agonists to glioma cells resulted in the rapid and transient elevation of 5alpha-R mRNA levels through the activation of the cyclic AMP (cAMP)/protein kinase A-mediated signaling pathway. Further studies showed that cAMP-induced 5alpha-R mRNA expression was completely abolished by pretreatment of cells with actinomycin D and also indicated that the elevation of 5alpha-R mRNA levels was accompanied by an increase in enzyme protein in the cells. These findings provide strong evidence that the stimulation of beta-adrenergic receptors might induce the transcriptional activation of 5alpha-R gene expression in glial cells, proposing the possibility that neuronal activity might be involved in the production of neuroactive 5alpha-reduced steroids in the brain.