Modifications of female sex chromatin (Barr body) in rat neurons after reserpine administration.

3 groups of rats were sacrificed 30 min, 4 h and 24 h after reserpine (10 mg/kg i.p.) injection. Toluidine blue stained sections showed that in the motor neurons of the spinal cord the drug, at 4 h, had induced a migration of the Barr body from the nucleolus to the nuclear membrane and an increase in its size and RNA concentration. From our findings we suggest that reserpine may have an activating role on X-linked genes.