Brain research bulletin
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Brain research bulletin · Jul 1986
Monosodium glutamate neurotoxicity: a sex-specific impairment of blood pressure but not vasopressin in developing rats.
Neonatal administration of monosodium glutamate (MSG) results in severe adenohypophyseal endocrine malfunction as a result of hypothalamic neurotoxic lesioning. The present study examined the effects of administration of MSG on the neurohypophyseal vasopressinergic (AVP) system and systolic blood pressure (SBP) in adulthood. Monosodium glutamate or hypertonic sodium chloride was administered to male and female rat pups on days 1, 3, 5, 7 and 9 after birth. ⋯ Female MSG-treated rats, unlike male MSG-treated rats, exhibited consistent systolic hypotension when compared with the NaCl-treated or non-treated control rats at 6, 9 and 12 weeks of age. Despite this chronic hypotension in MSG-treated female rats, heart rate was not altered and serum AVP was not elevated. These observations suggest a resetting of the baroreflex, attributable to neonatal administration of MSG.