title: c-Fos expression related to sexual satiety in the male rat forebrain.
abstract: The long term inhibition of masculine sexual behavior after repeated ejaculations is known as sexual satiety. To investigate the brain areas that may regulate sexual satiety, c-Fos expression was studied in different groups of sexually experienced male rats: controls not allowed to copulate, males allowed two or four ejaculations and animals allowed to reach sexual satiety. Interestingly, males that ejaculated two or four times had similar c-Fos densities in all the evaluated brain regions, except for the suprachiasmatic nucleus. Similarly, sexually satiated males had analogous c-Fos densities in all the evaluated brain areas independently of the number of ejaculations required to reach satiety. Sexual activity (evidenced in males that ejaculated two or four times) increased c-Fos levels in the anteromedial bed nucleus of the stria terminalis, claustrum, entorhinal cortex, medial preoptic area, nucleus accumbens core, suprachiasmatic nucleus and supraoptic nucleus; however, sexual satiety did not modify c-Fos expression in these regions. Sexually satiated males had increased c-Fos densities in the ventrolateral septum and the anterodorsal and posteroventral medial amygdala, compared with animals allowed to copulate but that did not reach sexual satiety, and decreased c-Fos density in the piriform cortex. These results suggest that the network that underlies sexual satiety is different from that which regulates copulation.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmacobiology, CINVESTAV, Mexico City, Mexico.
authors.forename: B V
authors.initials: BV
authors.lastname: Phillips-Farfán
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Fernández-Guasti
mesh_terms: D000679:Amygdala / Q000378:metabolism; D000818:Animals; D001931:Brain Mapping; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D008032:Limbic System / Q000378:metabolism*; D008297:Male; D009833:Olfactory Pathways / Q000378:metabolism; D020534:Parahippocampal Gyrus / Q000378:metabolism; D016548:Prosencephalon / Q000378:metabolism; D016760:Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-fos / Q000378:metabolism*; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar; D012527:Satiation / Q000502:physiology*; D020665:Septum of Brain / Q000378:metabolism; D012726:Sexual Behavior, Animal / Q000502:physiology*
chemical_list: D016760:Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-fos