| Abstract: | Discusses previous studies indicating that estradiol reduces the food intake of adult female rats, while prepubertal females are refractory to its appetite-depressing action unless they have been hypophysectomized. In an experiment with 30 ovariectomized and hypophysectomized Sprague-Dawley female rats, treatment of weanlings with pituitary growth hormone restored the refractoriness of the neural feeding system to estradiol. It is suggested that growth hormone masks ventromedial hypothalamic restraint of food intake. Because estradiol affects eating by acting on the ventromedial hypothalamus, it is ineffective in young animals, which are highly responsive to growth hormone. (17 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved) |
