Food Deprivation Inhibits Estrous Behavior in Hormone-Treated Syrian Hamsters Despite Elevated Estradiol Levels

Estradiol and progesterone (P) induce female mammalian reproductive behaviors, which are, in turn, sensitive to food availability. When ovariectomized, steroid-primed hamsters are food deprived for 48 h, estrous behavior is suppressed. While this suppression of estrous behavior may be due to alterat...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Hormones and behavior 2002-05, Vol.41 (3), p.316-320
Main Authors: Jones, Juli E., Pick, Rebecca R., Wade, George N.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animals
Behavioral psychophysiology
Biological and medical sciences
Cricetinae
deprivation-induced anestrus
Estradiol - analogs & derivatives
Estradiol - blood
Estradiol - pharmacology
estrogen
Estrous Cycle - physiology
Female
food deprivation
Food Deprivation - physiology
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Hormones and behavior
lordosis
Mesocricetus
nutritional infertility
Posture
progesterone
Progesterone - pharmacology
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychology. Psychophysiology
sex behavior
Sexual Behavior, Animal - physiology
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Estradiol and progesterone (P) induce female mammalian reproductive behaviors, which are, in turn, sensitive to food availability. When ovariectomized, steroid-primed hamsters are food deprived for 48 h, estrous behavior is suppressed. While this suppression of estrous behavior may be due to alterations in neural steroid receptor levels, it is also possible that decreased levels of circulating estradiol could be involved in mediating this suppression. Ovariectomized Syrian hamsters given varying doses of estradiol benzoate (EB) and P were tested to determine whether increasing doses of sex steroids would overcome the suppressive effects of food deprivation on estrous behavior. As expected, lordosis duration decreased in food-deprived animals. Increasing the levels of EB, but not P, increased lordosis duration in the food-deprived animals so that animals who were given 20 μg of EB had lordosis durations significantly longer than food-deprived hamsters that received 1.5 μg and 2.5 μg EB. Following an injection of 2.5 μg of EB, food-deprived hamsters actually had higher circulating levels of estradiol than ad libitum-fed animals. Therefore, increasing circulating levels of estradiol can increase lordosis durations in fasted animals; however, the suppression of estrous behavior occurs despite increased circulating estradiol levels in ovariectomized, steroid-treated animals. The most parsimonious explanation for this phenomenon is a deprivation-induced reduction in neural responsiveness to estradiol.
ISSN:0018-506X
1095-6867
DOI:10.1006/hbeh.2002.1764