HYPOTHALAMIC SEXUAL PRECOCITY IN FEMALE RATS OPERATED SHORTLY AFTER BIRTH

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Abstract
Electrolytic lesions were placed in the anterior hypothalamus of 3-4 day-old female rats; vaginal opening was hastened in comparison with blank-operated littermates in 12 of 17 rats bearing a lesion in the basal supra- and post-chiasmatic area. In the animals with the earliest vaginal opening, lesions reached upward towards the region of the anterior commissure and the para-ventricular nuclei. The degree of advancement of puberty in rats operated at the age of 3 or 4 days was similar to that caused by lesions made at 10, 14 or 15 days. This finding suggests that the effect of a lesion upon gonadotrophin secretion does not begin to take place until after the age of at least two weeks.

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