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Androgen-insensitive rats are defeminised by their testes

Nature volume 279, pages 238–239 (1979)Cite this article

Abstract

SOME chromosomal XY male humans1, mice2,3 and rats4 are born with a vagina, labia and clitoris instead of scrotum and penis. The expression of the female phenotype in these individuals is thought to be due to an insensitivity to androgenic hormones which are secreted by the testes. This phenomenon has been termed the androgen-insensitivity syndrone or testicular feminisation. Typically, androgen-insensitive humans are identified and adopt a female gender identity5. Androgen-insensitive rats, on the other hand, seem to be incapable of showing a high degree of feminine behaviour in adulthood even when given oestrogen and progesterone6,7. It is shown here that androgen-insensitive male rats are capable of responding to ovarian hormones with the display of feminine sexual behaviour if they are castrated at birth but not when castrated 10 d after birth. Although these rats are insensitive to their testicular secretions in terms of genital differentiation, the neural substrate of sexual behaviour is differentiated by the presence of testes during the first few days after birth.

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Author notes

  1. K. L. OLSEN

    Present address: Department of Neuroscience, Children's Hospital Medical Center, 300 Longwood Avenue, Boston, Massachusetts, 02115

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  1. Department of Psychobiology, University of California, Irvine, California, 92717

    K. L. OLSEN

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  1. K. L. OLSEN
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OLSEN, K. Androgen-insensitive rats are defeminised by their testes. Nature 279, 238–239 (1979). https://doi.org/10.1038/279238a0

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