Gender difference in alcohol-evoked hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal activity in the rat: ontogeny and role of neonatal steroids.

Abstract

Alcohol administration results in activation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, with female rats secreting more adrenocorticotropin (ACTH) and corticosterone (B) than males in response to the same dose of alcohol. We first examined the ontogeny of the gender difference in HPA responsiveness to alcohol by administering four doses (0, 1, 2, or 3 g/kg body weight) to animals at 21, 41, and 61 days of age (prepubertal, peripubertal, and postpubertal, respectively). We then investigated the organizational role of steroids by manipulating the neonatal steroidal milieu. Rats of both genders were gonadectomized or injected with testosterone propionate within 24 hr of birth and the HPA response to 3 g/kg body weight alcohol was tested in adulthood (postpubertal period). Our data show that the gender difference in HPA responsiveness to alcohol administration arises peripubertally. In addition, HPA response to alcohol is quantitatively smaller in intact male rats than in feminized groups (gonadectomized males and females, intact females) and masculinized female rats. We conclude that the gender difference in HPA response to alcohol observed in postpubertal rats injected with alcohol depends on the activational role of testicular androgens, rather than on their organizational influence.

• Authors: K M Ogilvie, C Rivier
• Journal: Alcoholism, clinical and experimental research (Alcohol Clin Exp Res) Vol. 20 Issue 2 Pg. 255-61 (Apr 1996) ISSN: 0145-6008 [Print] England
• PMID: 8730215 (Publication Type: Journal Article, Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't, Research Support, U.S. Gov't, P.H.S.)

Chemical References

• Gonadal Steroid Hormones
• Ethanol
• Adrenocorticotropic Hormone
• Corticosterone

Topics

• Adrenocorticotropic Hormone (blood)
• Alcohol Drinking (physiopathology)
• Animals
• Corticosterone (blood)
• Ethanol (pharmacology)
• Feedback (physiology)
• Female
• Gonadal Steroid Hormones (physiology)
• Hypothalamo-Hypophyseal System (drug effects, physiopathology)
• Male
• Pituitary-Adrenal System (drug effects, physiopathology)
• Rats
• Sex Characteristics
• Sexual Maturation (drug effects, physiology)
• Testis (drug effects, physiopathology)