The milk ejection pathway in brain studied with the 2-deoxyglucose method

The neural pathways involved in the milk ejection reflex have been studied with the aid of the 2-deoxyglucose (2DG) method. All the experiments were carried out on Wistar female rats, 9-11 days post-partum, which had been separated from their pups (except for one) overnight. The effect of suckling on the relative metabolic activity (RMA) of the brain was studied in conscious rats and in rats anaesthetized with urethane. Control animals were similarly treated but were not suckled. In addition, the effect of mammary nerve stimulation on RMA was studied in animals anaesthetized with urethane; sham-operated animals served as controls for this group. Suckling (minimum of 10 pups) in conscious animals had no apparent effect on the RMA of any of the brain areas measured. However, in anaesthetized rats, suckling produced a significant increase in the RMA of the paraventricular and supraoptic nuclei (PVN and SON), but had no effect on the RMA of any other brain area or the pituitary gland. Stimulation of the mammary nerve, with a stimulus that causes milk ejection and an increase in prolactin release, produced a significant increase in the RMA of the PVN, SON, the pars distalis and pars nervosa and the spinothalamic tract, and a significant decrease in the ventromedial and mediodorsal nuclei of the thalamus, the zona incerta, the red nucleus and the ventral nucleus of the lateral lemniscus. These results show that suckling significantly increases the metabolic activity of afferent terminals in the PVN and SON. Activation of the cell bodies of the PVN and SON, as assessed by increased RMA of the pituitary gland, could be evoked by the more intense stimulus of mammary nerve stimulation. The ascending pathway from the mammary nerve involves the spinothalamic tract but could not be traced beyond the midbrain. The lack of effect of suckling in conscious animals may have been due to the inhibitory influence of stress mediated by forebrain structures.