当前位置： SCI文献检索 > BEHAVIOURAL BRAIN RESEARCH期刊下所有文献 > Early social stress in female guinea pigs induces a masculinization of adult behavior and corresponding changes in brain and neuroendocrine function.

Early social stress in female guinea pigs induces a masculinization of adult behavior and corresponding changes in brain and neuroendocrine function.

Abstract：

:This study was undertaken to investigate, in guinea pigs, the effects of pre- and early postnatal social stress on the functioning of hormonal-, autonomic-, behavioral-, and limbic-brain systems. Dams had either lived in groups with a constant composition (i.e. stable social environment) or in groups with changing compositions, that means every 3 days two females were transferred from one group to another (i.e. unstable social environment). The subjects studied were female offspring of dams who had either lived in a stable social environment during pregnancy and lactation (i.e. control daughters, CF) or in an unstable social environment during this period of life (i.e. early stressed daughters, SF). After weaning, each five groups of CF and SF, consisting of two females each, were established. The spontaneous behavior of the females was recorded, blood samples were taken to determine cortisol, testosterone, dehydroepiandrosterone, dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate and estrogen levels, the adrenals were prepared to determine tyrosinehydroxylase (TH) activities and the brains to investigate the distribution of sex hormone receptors. SF showed not only a behavioral and endocrine masculinization, but also an upregulation of androgen receptor and estrogen receptor-alpha in the medial preoptic area and the nucleus arcuatus of the hypothalamus, the nucleus paraventricularis of the thalamus, and the CA1 region of the hippocampus. These findings corresponded with distinctly elevated serum-concentrations of testosterone and increased activities of the adrenal TH. In conclusion, early social stress caused by an unstable social environment induces in female guinea pigs a permanent behavioral masculinization that is accompanied by changes in the endocrine and autonomic system as well as by changes in the distribution of sex hormone receptors in the limbic system.

journal_name

Behav Brain Res

journal_title

Behavioural brain research

authors

Kaiser S,Kruijver FP,Swaab DF,Sachser N

doi

10.1016/s0166-4328(03)00077-9

subject

Has Abstract

pub_date

2003-09-15 00:00:00

pages

199-210

issue

1-2

eissn

0166-4328

issn

1872-7549

pii

S0166432803000779

journal_volume

144

pub_type

杂志文章

在线工具

Early social stress in female guinea pigs induces a masculinization of adult behavior and corresponding changes in brain and neuroendocrine function.