Elsevier

Hormones and Behavior

Volume 51, Issue 3, March 2007, Pages 364-372
Hormones and Behavior

The effects of prenatal PCBs on adult female paced mating reproductive behaviors in rats

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.yhbeh.2006.12.004Get rights and content

Abstract

Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) are a family of toxicants that persist in measurable quantities in human and wildlife tissues, despite their ban in production in 1977. Some PCB mixtures can act as endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) by mimicking or antagonizing the actions of hormones in the brain and periphery. When exposure to hormonally active substances such as PCBs occurs during vulnerable developmental periods, particularly prenatally or in early postnatal life, they can disrupt sex-specific patterning of the brain, inducing permanent changes that can later be manifested as improper sexual behaviors. Here, we investigated the effects of prenatal exposure to the PCB mixture Aroclor (A) 1221 on adult female reproductive behaviors in a dose–response model in the Sprague–Dawley rat. Using a paced mating paradigm that permits the female to set the timing of mating and control contact with the male during copulation, we were able to uncover significant differences in female-typical sexual activities in A1221-exposed females. Specifically, A1221 causes significant effects on mating trial pacing, vocalizations, ambulation and the female's likelihood to mate. The results further demonstrate that the intermediate treatment group has the greatest number of disrupted endpoints, suggestive of non-linear dose responses to A1221. These data demonstrate that the behavioral phenotype in adulthood is disrupted by low, ecologically relevant exposures to PCBs, and the results have implications for reproductive success and health in wildlife and women.

Section snippets

Animals

All experimental procedures were performed following protocols approved by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee at the University of Texas at Austin. Timed pregnant Sprague–Dawley rats were purchased from the University of Texas Animal Resources Center and were housed individually under a 12:12 light cycle. Animals were fed low-phytoestrogen rat chow (Harlan Teklad Global Diet 2019) and water ad libitum. Pregnant dams were intraperitoneally injected with 0.1 ml of vehicle (dimethyl

Mating trial pacing

Results on latencies for females to return to the mating chamber after mounts, intromissions, and ejaculations are shown in Fig. 1. Of the behaviors scored, mount-return latency (F(3, 38) = 3.53, p < 0.05) and the post-ejaculatory interval (F(3, 38) = 3.23, p < 0.05) were significantly affected by A1221 treatment (p < 0.05 for both). Post hoc analyses of mount-return latency revealed that the 1 mg/kg group had a longer mount-return latency than the 0.1 mg/kg group (p < 0.05). For post-ejaculatory return

Discussion

We investigated the effects of prenatal PCB exposures on adult female sexual behaviors and observed several endpoints that were significantly altered by A1221 exposure. Overall, we observed the greatest number of effects of the intermediate (1 mg/kg) dosage of A1221, exposure to which affected adult mating trial pacing, receptivity/proximity behaviors, and audible vocalizations compared to control and lower or higher doses of A1221. This suggests the possibility of a non-linear dose response

Acknowledgments

We acknowledge generous support from the PhRMA Foundation (Predoctoral Fellowship to RMS) and the NIEHS (ES12272, ES07784 to ACG). We are grateful to Drs. Marilyn McGinnis and Mary Erskine for valuable advice on the paced mating regime.

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