Post-neonatal androgenization and adult aggressive behavior in female mice

Abstract

This experiment sought to determine whether chronic, long term administration of testosterone propionate (TP) to post-neonatal female mice would facilitate the androgen induced arousal of aggressive behavior in adulthood. Female mice were ovariectomized at 30 days of age and either administered TP daily for 20 days or a control injection of oil for 20 days. Forty-five days after the termination of the pretreatment, all mice were given TP and tested in pairs for fighting. Following androgen administration in adulthood 75 per cent of the pairs pretreated with TP in immaturity fought, but only 25 per cent of the pairs of females pretreated with oil in immaturity fought. It was concluded that the potential for androgen administered in infancy to induce masculinization of female mice with respect to androgen aroused aggressive behavior in adulthood exists for at least one month after birth.