Anxiolytic effects of the neuroactive steroid pregnanolone (3α-OH-5β-pregnan-20-one) after microinjection in the dorsal hippocampus and lateral septum

• Published in: Brain research Vol. 850; no. 1; pp. 217 - 224
• Main Authors: Bitran, Daniel, Dugan, Matthew, Renda, Phyllis, Ellis, Rebecca, Foley, Melissa
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Elsevier B.V 11.12.1999; Amsterdam Elsevier; New York, NY
• Subjects: Animals; Anti-Anxiety Agents - administration & dosage; Anti-Anxiety Agents - pharmacology; Anxiolytic; Behavior, Animal - drug effects; Biological and medical sciences; Chloride Channels - antagonists & inhibitors; Defensive burying test; Dose-Response Relationship, Drug; Electroshock; Elevated plus-maze; Flumazenil - pharmacology; GABA Modulators - pharmacology; GABA-A Receptor Antagonists; Hippocampus; Hippocampus - physiology; Isoquinolines - pharmacology; Lateral septum; Male; Medical sciences; Microinjections; Neuropharmacology; Neurosteroid; Pharmacology. Drug treatments; Picrotoxin - pharmacology; pregnanolone; Pregnanolone - administration & dosage; Pregnanolone - pharmacology; Psycholeptics: tranquillizer, neuroleptic; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychopharmacology; Rats; Rats, Long-Evans; Receptors, GABA-A - drug effects; Septum of Brain - physiology; Neurosteroid; Elevated plus-maze; Anxiolytic; Defensive burying test; Hippocampus; Lateral septum; Vertebrata; Mammalia; Tranquillizer; Rat; Psychotropic; Animal; Septum nucleus; Rodentia; Central nervous system; Pregnanolone; Brain (vertebrata)

The anxiolytic effects of the neuroactive steroid, 3α-OH-5β-pregnan-20-one (pregnanolone), were determined after injection into the dorsal hippocampus or lateral septum in adult male rats. An increase in the proportion of time spent on the open arms of the elevated plus-maze was found after 2.5 and...