The relation between monosodium glutamate inducing brain damage, and body weight, food intake, semen production and endocrine criteria in the fowl.

Various dosages of monosodium glutamate (M.S.G.) were injected to 5 day old male chicks. Body weights, food intake, rate of obesity, semen production, some endocrine criteria and brain pathology were studied til 235 days post injection. All M.S.G. treated birds showed brain damage in the rotundus nuclei, and in the area located dorsolaterally to the ventromedial hypothalamic nuclei (V.M.H.). In some of the M.S.G. treated birds, additional brain regions were damaged, i.e. V.M.H., mammillary nuclei, dorsomedial anterior nuclei, ovoid nuclei, subrotundus nuclei, archistriatum and lateral forebrain bundles. Some of the M.S.G. treated birds showed marked abdominal fat deposition or low spermatozoan motility. It was impossible to attribute these changes to the dosage of M.S.G. injected. No significant differences were found in these parameters between the treated birds and the saline injected ones. When the M.S.G. treated birds were categorized on the basis of brain damage in specific sites, the following was observed: 1) Birds with V.M.H. damage accumulated significant larger amounts of fat in the abdominal adipose tissue than the rest of the M.S.G. treated birds. 2) Those M.S.G. treated birds, showing brain damage in their mammillary nuclei, produced semen of a very low spermatozoan motility rate as compared to the rest of the M.S.G. treated birds and the controls.