Abstract

Male rats castrated as adults were given successive doses of estradiol benzoate (EB) combined or not with dexamethasone (DEXA) at the end of estrogen treatment. Two experiments were done to determine if progesterone (P) of adrenocortical origin was involved in the display of lordosis behavior under these experimental circumstances. There was a significant rise in blood P concentration in animals given 0.5 and 1.0 μg EB when compared with oil-control injected animals an effect which was completely suppressed by DEXA treatment. An increase in the proportion of estrogen treated animals displaying lordosis responses to male mounts was found with increasing doses of EB and paralleled the effects of EB on P adrenocortical secretion. However the number of feminized animals given 1 μ g EB + DEXA was reduced to the level corresponding to the effects of 0.5 μg EB on lordosis behavior. These data show that the secretion of P by the adrenals is involved in the expression of lordosis behavior in castrated male rats primed with repeated doses of estrogen.

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