Perinatal estradiol benzoate administration affects control of ventilation in adult male rats

One injection of estradiol benzoate (EB) (100 micrograms) or vehicle was administered to male rat pups 5 days after birth. Two months later ventilation, ventilatory responses to 7% carbon dioxide, and to 580 mg/kg aspartic acid (an agent used as a marker of sexually dimorphism in the control of ventilation) were evaluated and body weight, testes weight, and nose-anus length were measured in animals in each group. The EB-treated rats had similar tidal volumes, frequency of breathing, and minute ventilation as did control male rats. The ventilatory responses of EB-treated rats to hypercapnia were markedly less than those of control animals. Aspartic acid administration depressed ventilation in control animals, but had no effect on ventilation in EB-treated males. Body and testes weights, as well as nose-anus length, were less in EB-treated compared with control rats. However, when body weight was normalized by nose-anus length and testes weight was normalized by body weight, the values were comparable between the two groups. Thus, perinatal EB treatment of male rat pups results in small, hypogonadal adult animals whose ventilation in response to hypercapnia was diminished and whose response to aspartic acid was female-like relative to those of control rats.