[Corticohypophysiotropic and corticotropic activity in adrenalectomized male and female rats after psychic stress]

We show modifications in the hypothalamic CRF activity and plasma ACTH concentration in adult rats of both sexes, which were five day sham-operated or adrenalectomized and killed either under basal conditions or after a 3 min period or psychological stress. 1. Under basal conditions, the inhibition of the basal release of ACTH is suppressed in 5 day adrenalectomized rats and a sex difference appears: plasma ACTH concentration is twice as great in females than in males. 2. After a 3 min period of psychological stress, the usual increase in hypothalamic CRF activity observed in sham-operated rats, which seems to be sex-related, does not appear in adrenalectomized male or female rats. However, in adrenalectomized rats, the maximal increase in plasma ACTH concentration occurred more rapidly, with a rate 10 times as great in males and 4 times as great in females, than in sham-operated rats. Differences between the sexes in the maximal increase in plasma ACTH concentration remains 1,6 times as great in females than in males. 3. Our results confirm that corticosteroids exert: (1) a tonic feedback inhibition of the basal release of ACTH, (2) a fast feedback inhibition of the stress induced release of ACTH; the promote an increase in the hypothalamic CRF content. Relative intensity of these two inhibitory mechanisms seems to be sex-related.