Pj. Cowburn et Ap. Payne, ANDROGENS AND INDOLEAMINES INTERACT TO CONTROL SEXUAL DIMORPHISMS IN THE RAT SPINAL-CORD, Neuroscience letters, 169(1-2), 1994, pp. 101-104
Previous studies have shown that (i) androgen administration and (ii)
depletion of serotonin can independently masculinise parts of the medi
al preoptic area and groups of motor neurons in the lumbosacral spinal
cord when applied during the early postnatal period. We report here t
hat these two control mechanisms interact in the neonatal female rat.
Serotonin depletion by p-chlorophenyl alanine extends the 'critical pe
riod' during which androgens can act to stabilise neuron numbers withi
n two sexually dimorphic motor neuron groups in segments L5-S1 (the sp
inal nucleus of bulbocavernosus and the dorsolateral nucleus), probabl
y by slowing the rate of naturally occurring cell death. A non-dimorph
ic group of motor neurons (the ventromedial nucleus) was unaffected.