Department of Pharmacology and Physiology, Oklahoma State University Center for Health Sciences, Tulsa, OK 74107, United States of America.
Department of Pharmacology and Physiology, Oklahoma State University Center for Health Sciences, Tulsa, OK 74107, United States of America.
Horm Behav. 2019 Mar;109:53-55. doi: 10.1016/j.yhbeh.2019.02.008. Epub 2019 Feb 15.
Male, but not female, prairie voles that experience chronic exposure to inorganic mercury display aberrant social behavior - avoiding unfamiliar conspecifics rather than approaching them. The mechanisms that underlie such behavioral changes are unknown, but likely involve the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis. We tested this hypothesis by providing voles of both sexes with mercury chloride in their drinking water for ten weeks and then staging same-sex dyadic encounters after which plasma was assayed for corticosterone as an index of HPA activity. Consistent with sex-specific behavioral responses previously reported, mercury-treated males had lower plasma corticosterone after social encounters than did similarly-treated females or males that consumed normal drinking water. The results suggest that mercury-treated males may be less inclined toward social engagement with conspecifics due to reduced HPA activity.
雄性而非雌性的草原田鼠在长期接触无机汞后表现出异常的社交行为——回避而非接近陌生同种个体。导致这种行为变化的机制尚不清楚，但可能涉及下丘脑-垂体-肾上腺（HPA）轴。我们通过在饮用水中给雌雄两性田鼠提供氯化汞来验证这一假设，为期十周，然后进行同性对偶遭遇实验，检测血浆中的皮质酮作为 HPA 活性的指标。与之前报道的性别特异性行为反应一致，与接受相同处理的雌性或饮用正常饮用水的雄性相比，经汞处理的雄性在社交后血浆皮质酮水平较低。这些结果表明，由于 HPA 活性降低，经汞处理的雄性可能不太倾向于与同类进行社交。
