EFFECTS OF THE INTERRUPTION OF AMYGDALOID AND HIPPOCAMPAL AFFERENTS TO THE MEDIAL HYPOTHALAMUS ON GONADOTROPHIN RELEASE

Abstract

SUMMARY The effects of interruption of amygdaloid and hippocampal afferents to the hypothalamus on ovulation and on the release of luteinizing hormone (LH) were studied in rats. Animals acutely deprived on the morning of pro-oestrus of amygdaloid influences either by transection of the stria terminalis (ST) or lesions of the amygdala, failed to show the expected ovulation. Control lesions had no effect. In contrast, rats with long-term transection of either the ST, the cortico-hypothalamic tract (CHT), or both, had regular oestrus cycles and ovulated normally. Studies of ovulation which was induced after the administration of ovarian steroids revealed a differential response to oestrogen and progesterone. In animals with long-term transection of the ST the ovulatory response to oestrogen was similar to that induced in non-lesioned rats but fewer ovulations were induced by progesterone administration. The decreased ovulatory response after progesterone treatment was attributed to activation of inhibitory influences originating in the hippocampus, since administration of picrotoxin or section of the fornix re-established a normal response. Long-term interruption of the limbic efferents did not alter the increased levels of plasma LH found after ovariectomy. However, the release of LH induced by progesterone in ovariectomized rats primed with gonadal steroids was decreased after transection of the ST and increased after interruption of the CHT. These results are consistent with the concept that the amygdala and the hippocampus exert a modulating influence on gonadotrophin release; the influence of the amygdala being facilitatory and that of the hippocampus inhibitory.