Opioids and sexual behavior of male rats: involvement of the medial preoptic area.
Local infusion of beta-endorphin (beta-END) into the medial preoptic area (MPOA) dose-dependently impaired the gating of the copulatory response and the execution of the sexual performance of sexually experienced, intact male rats. Local naloxone treatment prevented the impairment of the sexual response by beta-END, but failed to facilitate unimpaired copulation. Local infusion into the MPOA of equimolar doses of alpha-endorphin, dynorphin-A-(1-17) or met-enkephalin were less effective than beta-END. It is suggested that endogenous opioid systems in the MPOA are normally quiescent, and increased activity may be related to disrupted or inhibited male sexual behavior.
van Furth
W R
WR
Department of Pharmacology, Rudolf Magnus Institute for Neuroscience, University of Utrecht, The Netherlands.
van Emst
M G
MG
van Ree
J M
JM
D000818:Animals; D001931:Brain Mapping; D003307:Copulation / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D008297:Male; D009433:Neural Inhibition / Q000502:physiology; D018847:Opioid Peptides / Q000502:physiology*; D011301:Preoptic Area / Q000502:physiology*; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar; D012726:Sexual Behavior, Animal / Q000502:physiology*; D001615:beta-Endorphin / Q000502:physiology
D018847:Opioid Peptides; D001615:beta-Endorphin