Effects of septal lesions and chronic estrogen treatment on dopamine, GABA and lordosis behavior in male rats.

Septal lesions (SL) in female rats result in an increased sensitivity to the behavioral effects of acute estradiol benzoate (ACUTE-EB; 2 microgram/day X 3) treatment as measured by the lordosis quotient (LQ: number of lordotic responses X 100/number of mounts). Male rats, intact or castrated, do not show this enhanced behavioral response to ACUTE-EB unless they are treated with EB (2 microgram/day) for 2--4 weeks immediately following the production of SL. The present study was undertaken to examine possible neurochemical alterations which could account for the enhanced behavioral sensitivity to ACUTE-EB seen in the SL male rat treated chronically with EB during the postlesion period (SL-EB). Three groups, normal males, SL-EB and SL males chronically treated with oil (SL-oil), were subdivided and treated with ACUTE-EB or oil and decapitated. The brains were removed, frozen and stored at -50 degrees C prior to dissection and assay. Tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) activity was assayed in the dopamine (DA) rich areas of the forebrain (striatum, STR, nucleus accumbens septi, ACB; and olfactory tubercle). The TH activity was significantly suppressed in both the STR and ACB of the SL-EB males treated with ACUTE-EB. The glutamic acid decarboxylase (GAD) activity in both the substantia nigra and ventral tegmentum was significantly increased in the SL-EB males given ACUTE-EB relative to that of all other groups. In summary, SL-EB males given ACUTE-EB show (1) an enhanced LQ, (2) decreased TH activity in the region of DA terminals, and (3) increased GAD activity in the region of DA cell bodies. The increase in GAD activity is suggested to be a result of an altered neuronal feedback because of plastic changes that occur during chronic EB treatment following production of SL. This probable increase in inhibitory tone in the region of the DA cell bodies may explain the observation that the SL-EB male exhibits decreased DA turnover following ACUTE-EB treatment. Moreover, since DA may be inhibitory to the display of lordosis behavior, the SL-EB males may show an enhanced LQ, at least partially, because of this reduction in DA activity.