Sexually dimorphic areas in the rat medial amygdala: resistance to the demasculinizing effect of prenatal stress.
Exposure to prenatal stress blocks full masculinization of several sexually dimorphic nuclei in the brain and spinal cord of male rats. We now compare the adult volume of the medical amygdala (MA) and two of its component cell groups, posterodorsal (MePD) and posteroventral (MePV), in prenatally stressed male rats and nonstressed males and females. Previous reports of sex differences (male > female) in the overall size of the MA and the MePD component were confirmed, and we identified a previously unreported sex difference (male > female) in MePV. Prenatal stress had no effect on the size of the total MA, or of the MePD or MePV in males. Maternal stress attenuates the surge in plasma testosterone (T) which normally occurs on days 18 and 19 of gestation in male rats. This brief suppression of T during prenatal development leads to incomplete masculinization of some sexually dimorphic features of the CNS (i.e. the SDN-MPOA of the hypothalamus, and SNB and DLN of the spinal cord) but not others (i.e. the MA, MePD, and MePV). The selective effects of prenatal stress on neural differentiation may be due to differences in the onset and duration of the periods when each of these structures in most sensitive to T and/or its metabolites.
Kerchner
M
M
Department of Psychology, Washington College, Chestertown, MD 21620-1197, USA.
Malsbury
C W
CW
Ward
O B
OB
Ward
I L
IL
D000679:Amygdala / Q000473:pathology*; D000818:Animals; D004542:Ejaculation; D005260:Female; D007031:Hypothalamus / Q000473:pathology; D008297:Male; D011247:Pregnancy; D011297:Prenatal Exposure Delayed Effects; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley; D012727:Sex Characteristics; D012733:Sex Differentiation; D013116:Spinal Cord / Q000473:pathology; D013312:Stress, Physiological / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology*