Entrainment of Syrian hamster circadian activity rhythms by neonatal melatonin injections

The circadian rhythms of fetal and neonatal rodents are entrained by their mother. This entrainment is dependent upon the maternal suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN), but the mechanism of entrainment is unknown. Administration of the pineal hormone melatonin to pregnant, SCN-lesioned female Syrian hamsters entrains the activity rhythms of their hamster pups. The aim of this study was to determine whether melatonin injected directly in neonatal Syrian hamsters is able to entrain circadian rhythms and, if so, for how long this effect persists during development. Injection of melatonin in two groups of hamster pups at opposite phases on postnatal days 1-5 entrained the onset of activity rhythms on the day of weaning to two phases 10.67 h apart. Melatonin injection did not entrain activity rhythms to opposite phases on either postnatal days 6-10 or 21-25. Vehicle injection did not entrain animals to opposite phases at any of the ages studied. These results demonstrate that melatonin is able to act directly on the neonate to cause entrainment and that this effect disappears after postnatal day 6.