Impairment of sexual behaviour in female rats with impaired glucose tolerance due to streptozotocin treatment of their maternal grandmothers.

A decreased receptive sexual behaviour was found in female F2-offspring of Streptozotocin-treated maternal grandmothers. These F2-offspring are characterized by decreased glucose tolerance and increased diabetes susceptibility, their metabolic situation being comparable to that of Type II prediabetes. The observed phenomena were associated with permanent hypoplasia of the hypothalamic ventromedial nucleus (HVN). It is hypothesized that there could be a causal relationship between these morphological changes in the HVN and impaired sexual behaviour in female prediabetic rats.