Abstract
Weanling rats received bilateral electrolytic lesions destroying the areas of the ventromedial (VMN) and dorsomedial (DMN) hypothalamic nuclei, respectively. Trunk blood was collected at sacrifice (Experiment 1 and 2∶ 31 days, Experiment 3∶ 14 days) for the determination of plasma growth hormone (GH) by radioimmunoassay. Rats with DMN lesions showed consistently normal to slightly elevated plasma GH levels while animals with VMN lesions showed significantly reduced plasma GH levels. Linear growth was reduced by both types of hypothalamic lesions but body weight gains and food intake were reduced only in the DMN lesioned rats. Carcass fat was greatly elevated in VMN lesioned rats, moderately elevated in one experiment in the DMN animals and normal in another experiment. These data confirm a previous hypothesis that growth retardation in DMN rats is not due to low circulating GH level but rather represents a hypocaloric-type dwarfism.
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