Unlike other rodents, juvenile female guinea pigs rarely display sexual receptivity (lordosis) following a variety of estradiol and progesterone treatments that elicit estrous behavior in adult females. The long-range goals of the experiments described in this application are to elucidate the neural mechanisms underlying the behavioral hyporesponsiveness to steroid hormones in immature females. The primary foci of this proposal are a caudally-projecting, steroid responsive pathway originating in the hypothalamus that appears to mediate the behavioral actions of estradiol and progesterone, the neurotransmitters acting within this pathway, and the activity of other central nervous system components, particularly one originating in or traversing the medial preoptic area, that may inhibit or override its activity, during the juvenile period. A combination of physiological, pharmacological and neuroanatomical techniques will be used to determine the integrity, in juvenile females, of the putative pathways mediating steroid-induced lordosis. Several neurotransmitter systems will be studied, to ascertain whether hypoactivity in neurotransmitter systems thought to be stimulatory for lordosis (norepinephrine, substance P) or hyperactivity of systems thought to inhibit receptivity (endogenous opiates) might underlie the juvenile female's immature behavioral response to steroid hormones. The results of these studies will provide insight into the mechanisms of steroid hormone action in the central nervous system, especially within the context of puberty. These data will help establish a framework within which one can study normal, as well as aberrant sexual maturation and/or responsiveness to estradiol and progesterone in humans and laboratory animals.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health & Human Development (NICHD)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
1R01HD028636-01A3
Application #
2201217
Study Section
Reproductive Endocrinology Study Section (REN)
Project Start
1994-05-01
Project End
1997-04-30
Budget Start
1994-05-01
Budget End
1995-04-30
Support Year
1
Fiscal Year
1994
Total Cost
Indirect Cost
Name
University of California Santa Barbara
Department
Psychology
Type
Schools of Arts and Sciences
DUNS #
City
Santa Barbara
State
CA
Country
United States
Zip Code
93106
Lopez, H H; Olster, D H; Ettenberg, A (1999) Sexual motivation in the male rat: the role of primary incentives and copulatory experience. Horm Behav 36:176-85
Marin-Bivens, C L; Olster, D H (1999) Food restriction neither improves nor exacerbates reproduction in obese female Zucker rats. Physiol Behav 66:893-7
Marin-Bivens, C L; Olster, D H (1999) Opioid receptor blockade promotes weight loss and improves the display of sexual behaviors in obese Zucker female rats. Pharmacol Biochem Behav 63:515-20
Olster, D H (1998) Site-specific opioid receptor blockade allows prepubertal guinea pigs to display progesterone-facilitated lordosis. Horm Behav 33:115-24
Olster, D H (1998) Reproductive behavioral responsiveness to noradrenergic stimulation in developing guinea pigs. Pharmacol Biochem Behav 59:551-6
Olster, D H (1998) Lordosis-enhancing medial preoptic area lesions do not alter hypothalamic estrogen receptor- or progestin receptor-immunoreactivity in prepubertal female guinea pigs. Brain Res 790:254-63
Marin-Bivens, C L; Kalra, S P; Olster, D H (1998) Intraventricular injection of neuropeptide Y antisera curbs weight gain and feeding, and increases the display of sexual behaviors in obese Zucker female rats. Regul Pept 75-76:327-34
Marin Bivens, C L; Olster, D H (1997) Abnormal estrous cyclicity and behavioral hyporesponsiveness to ovarian hormones in genetically obese Zucker female rats. Endocrinology 138:143-8
Olster, D H; Paulson, K G (1997) Effects of medial preoptic area and septal lesions on puberty in female guinea pigs. Biol Reprod 56:731-8
Jones, A P; Olster, D H; States, B (1996) Maternal insulin manipulations in rats organize body weight and noradrenergic innervation of the hypothalamus in gonadally intact male offspring. Brain Res Dev Brain Res 97:16-21

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