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Science 15 March 1985:
Vol. 227. no. 4692, pp. 1357 - 1359
DOI: 10.1126/science.3975621
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Articles

Science, Vol 227, Issue 4692, 1357-1359
Copyright © 1985 by American Association for the Advancement of Science

articles

Hormonal control of the anatomical specificity of motoneuron-to-muscle innervation in rats

SM Breedlove

Motoneurons of the spinal nucleus of the bulbocavernosus innervate bulbocavernosus muscles in male rats. Adult female rats normally lack both the spinal nucleus and its target muscles. Prenatal treatment of females with testosterone propionate resulted in adults having, like males, both the spinal nucleus and its target muscles. However, prenatal treatment with dihydrotestosterone propionate preserves the muscles but not the motoneurons. This paradoxical condition might result from (i) bulbocavernosus muscles without innervation; (ii) muscles innervated by morphologically unrecognizable motoneurons; (iii) muscles innervated by a very few spinal nucleus cells, each innervating many bulbocavernosus fibers; or (iv) muscles innervated by motoneurons outside their normal anatomical locus in the spinal nucleus. The results of retrograde marker injections into the bulbocavernosus muscles of females treated with androgen refute the first three possibilities and confirm the last: the different androgen treatments result in anatomically distinct spinal motor nuclei innervating bulbocavernosus muscles.


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Complex Actions of Sex Steroids in Adipose Tissue, the Cardiovascular System, and Brain: Insights from Basic Science and Clinical Studies.
J. L. Turgeon, M. C. Carr, P. M. Maki, M. E. Mendelsohn, and P. M. Wise (2006)
Endocr. Rev. 27, 575-605
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Development of a Sexually Dimorphic Projection from the Bed Nuclei of the Stria Terminalis to the Anteroventral Periventricular Nucleus in the Rat.
L. A. Hutton, G. Gu, and R. B. Simerly (1998)
J. Neurosci. 18, 3003-3013
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Sexual Dimorphism in the Spinal Cord Is Absent in Mice Lacking the Ciliary Neurotrophic Factor Receptor.
N. G. Forger, M. L. Howell, L. Bengston, L. MacKenzie, T. M. DeChiara, and G. D. Yancopoulos (1997)
J. Neurosci. 17, 9605-9612
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »


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