Partial Compensation of Sexual Receptivity Deficits in Female Rats with Bilateral Lesions of the Hypothalamic Ventromedial Nucleus by Transplants of Fetal Mediobasal Hypothalamic Tissue

Summary

Bilateral aspiration as well as bilateral electrolytic lesions of the hypothalamic ventromedial nucleus (VMN) in ovariectomized, adult female rats treated with testosterone or estrogen resulted in a long-lasting decrease of sexual receptivity. Fetal mediobasal hypothalamic (MBH) tissue was grafted successfully to the site of VMN lessions.

The following presuppositions for a sufficient rate of long-term survival of the grafts could be defined :

(1) careful lesioning and minimalizing of damage to the surrounding tissues,

(2) high vitality of the donor fetuses,

(3) delay of transplantation after lesioning, and

(4) testosterone treatment of the recipient animals at an early stage of graft development.

In rats with surviving MBH grafts the receptivity deficits resulting from bilateral aspiration of the VMN were compensated partially.

Sexual receptivity - Ventromedial nucleus - Lesions - Neural transplants