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Science 27 September 1974:
Vol. 185. no. 4157, pp. 1169 - 1171
DOI: 10.1126/science.185.4157.1169
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Articles

Melatonin: Its Inhibition of Pineal Antigonadotrophic Activity in Male Hamsters

R. J. Reiter 1, M. K. Vaughan 1, D. E. Blask 1, and L. Y. Johnson 1

1 Department of Anatomy, University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, San Antonio 78284

Exposure of male hamsters to short daily photoperiods (1 hour of light and 23 hours of darkness daily for 9 weeks led to total involution of the testes and accessory sex organs (seminal vesicles and coagulating glands). Pituitary levels of immunoreactive prolaction also decreased by about 60 percent after dark exposure. The inhibitory effects of darkness on the reproductive organs were prevented either by pinealectomy or by the subcutaneous implantation of a melatonin-beeswax pellet into the animals each week. Both pinealectomy and melatonin treatment also returned pituitary levels of prolactin toward normal. The results suggest that melatonin is not the pineal antigonadotrophic factor in the male golden hamster.


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Photoperiodic Regulation of Type 2 Deiodinase Gene in Djungarian Hamster: Possible Homologies between Avian and Mammalian Photoperiodic Regulation of Reproduction.
M. Watanabe, S. Yasuo, T. Watanabe, T. Yamamura, N. Nakao, S. Ebihara, and T. Yoshimura (2004)
Endocrinology 145, 1546-1549
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Cellular Mechanisms of Melatonin Action.
J. VANECEK (1998)
Physiol Rev 78, 687-721
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Dose-Dependent Entrainment of Rat Circadian Rhythms by Daily Injection of Melatonin.
V. M. Cassone, M. J. Chesworth, and S. M. Armstrong (1986)
J Biol Rhythms 1, 219-229
   Abstract »    PDF »
Melatonin: a coordinating signal for mammalian reproduction?.
L Tamarkin, C. Baird, and O. Almeida (1985)
Science 227, 714-720
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Diurnal rhythm of cytoplasmic estrogen receptors in the rat brain in the absence of circulating estrogens.
E. Roy and M. Wilson (1981)
Science 213, 1525-1527
   Abstract »    PDF »
Melatonin: antigonadal and progonadal effects in male golden hamsters.
F. Turek, C Desjardins, and M Menaker (1975)
Science 190, 280-282
   Abstract »    PDF »


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