Inhibition and facilitation of feedback influences of dexamethasone on adrenocortical responses to ether stress in rats with hypothalamic deafferentations and brain lesions.

In order to elucidate the mechanisms and the sites of action of the negative feedback of corticoids in the regulation of ACTH secretion, the effects of systemically administered dexamethasone on adrenocortical responses to ether stress were studied in intact rats and in 11 experimental groups. These included animals with partial anterior, anterolateral, posterolateral, posterior and small posterior deafferentations as well as bilateral lesions in the medial forebrain bundle (MFB), fasciculus longitudinalis dorsalis (FLD), medial and lateral midbrain reticular formation (MRF) and in the ventrolateral pons. In rats with posterior hypothalamic deafferentation the degree of the inhibitory effect of dexamethasone was much smaller than that in intact animals. In animals with lesions in the FLD and MRF, dexamethasone also produced a reduction in the suppression of the response, though the difference was not significant. Bilateral lesions in the MFB and MP have on the other hand very significantly enhanced the effect of the negative feedback of dexamethasone when compared to intact rats. These data would indicate that hypothalamic deafferentations and brain lesions may change the sensitivity of the hypothalamus for the feedback control of corticoids and that there exist two antagonistic systems, an inhibitory and a facilitatory, in the brain which mediate this effect.