Sex-dependent survival of rats after bilateral pallidal lesions

The effects of unilateral and bilateral pallidal lesions were studied in male and female rats. While unilateral lesions produced only transient aphagia and adipsia, the results of bilateral lesions were more severe. Sixteen out of 30 rats of the Wistar strain survived the bilateral lesion and the survivors were followed unitl the 157th day. The majority of survivors were females. The recovery of males was slower than females. All the surviving animals and also some of those which died ate and drank spontaneously. Similar results were obtained in repeated experiment on the CFY strain of rats. Our data suggest that aphagia and adipsia, as well as the considerable weight loss causing the death of animals may be regarded as disorders of two partially independent mechanisms; however, both of them are expressed more in male than female animals.