The effect of an exteroceptive stimulus on milk ejection in lactating rats.

Abstract

1. The exteroceptive stimulus emanating from a lactating rat and the litter while suckling was used to induce milk ejection in another lactating mother 15 min before the replacement of her own litter. The effect of the external stimulus on milk ejection during one 30 min period and four 15 min periods of nursing was studied.2. After being isolated for 9 hr the litter from the mother subjected to the exteroceptive nursing stimulus (induced rat) obtained a significantly greater amount of milk during 30 min of nursing than that obtained by the litter from the control mother.3. When deaf mother rats were used the gain of milk by the litter showed no difference between the control and the induced mother. This result indicated that the effective external stimulus is an auditory one and is probably produced by the mother rat and the young while suckling.4. The administration of oxytocin (Syntocinon, Sandoz) 20 m-u./100 g body wt., 15 min before the replacement of the litter produced a milk ejection similar to that obtained under the influence of the auditory stimulus. This would indicate that the exteroceptive stimulus probably evokes the release of oxytocin from the neurohypophysis.5. When nursing was performed in four periods of 15 min each the litter of the control mother obtained milk only in the second period of nursing while the litter of the induced mother obtained milk in all four periods of nursing and the amount of milk obtained in the whole hour was greater than that from the control rat.6. The administration of oxytocin just before the replacement of the litter every 15 min produced milk ejection only in the first two periods of suckling in the control rats but the induced rats were capable of ejecting milk during all four periods.7. The most satisfactory conclusion for the results obtained is that the C.N.S. regulates both the release of oxytocin in response to suckling and the response of the mammary gland to oxytocin, in the lactating rat.