Effects of Posterior Hypothalamic Lesions on Sexual Maturation of Immature Female Albino Rats

Abstract

Eleven 21-day-old female albino rats were subjected to bilateral lesions of the area from the mammilary body to the ventromedial nucleus. These animals showed definite signs of delayed puberty, reproductive immaturity, viciousness and imminent obesity. Five had vaginae that never opened. The results indicate the importance of hypothalamic function to puberal onset, and to the structural and physiological success of the reproductive-sex complex.