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Influence of Pinealectomy on Sexual Behavior of Normal and Monosodium L‐Glutamate‐Treated Rats
Author(s) -
Hsu Chin,
Huang HungTu,
Hsu HsengKuang,
Yu John YuhLin,
Peng MingTsung
Publication year - 1990
Publication title -
journal of pineal research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.881
H-Index - 131
eISSN - 1600-079X
pISSN - 0742-3098
DOI - 10.1111/j.1600-079x.1990.tb00670.x
Subject(s) - pinealectomy , medicine , endocrinology , monosodium glutamate , ejaculation , pineal gland , androgen , lordosis , melatonin , estrogen , sex steroid , biology , steroid , hormone , radiography , radiology
Subcutaneous injections of monosodium L‐glutamate (MSG) were administered, as a neurotoxin, at a dose of 4 mg/g body weight to rat pups on days 1 and 3 postnatally. Pinealectomy was performed at 6 weeks of age, and animals were allowed to mature. The intact MSG‐treated rats showed a decrease of lordosis quotient in females and a reduction of ejaculation frequency and an increase in mount frequency in males. Pinealectomy caused no significant improvement on sexual behavior of the salinetreated normal rats, but it caused a marked improvement of the sexual receptivity in MSG‐treated female rats and reinstated ejaculation in MSG‐treated males. The circulatory sex steroid levels, estrogen in females and androgen in males, were not significantly different between the intact and pinealectomized MSG‐treated groups in the respective sexes, whereas the progesterone level in females was significantly elevated in the pinealectomized MSG‐treated group compared with the intact MSG‐treated group. These findings suggest that the pineal gland plays an inhibitory role on the sexual behavior of MSG‐treated rats and the improvement of sexual behavior following pinealectomy may be dependent on certain mechanisms other than the actions of circulatory androgens or estrogens.