Preoptic glutamate facilitates male sexual behavior

Abstract

The medial preoptic area (MPOA) is a critical regulatory site for the control of male sexual behavior. We first measured glutamate in 2 min microdialysate samples from the MPOA before, during, and after copulation by male rats. There was a slight [approximately 140% of baseline (BL)] rise in extracellular glutamate when the female was presented, a significant increase (approximately 170% of BL) during periods of mounting and intromitting, and a very large increase in samples collected during ejaculation (approximately 300% of BL). A precipitous fall in levels occurred in the first postejaculatory sample; the magnitude of this fall was highly correlated with the length of the postejaculatory interval of quiescence. In experiment 2, we reverse-dialyzed a mixture of glutamate uptake inhibitors into the MPOA before and during mating; control animals received artificial CSF. The mixture increased extracellular glutamate (approximately 280% of BL), increased the number of ejaculations in the 40 min test, decreased ejaculation latency, and decreased the postejaculatory latency to resume copulation. These data, together with other findings that glutamate in the MPOA can elicit genital reflexes in anesthetized rats and that glutamate receptor antagonists in the MPOA impair copulation, strongly suggest that MPOA glutamate is a major facilitator of copulation and that the postejaculatory fall in glutamate regulates the postejaculatory interval.

Figure 1.

Extracellular MPOA glutamate changes with COP. A, Comparison of chromatograms collected from an animal before and during COP with standards. B, Mean change in MPOA glutamate release during BL, PRE, COP, EJAC, PEI, and POST. Samples were collected at 2 min intervals. Values are expressed as mean ± SEM. *p < 0.05; **p < 0.001. C, Relationship of postejaculatory decrease in glutamate to duration of PEI (r = 0.763).

Figure 2.

Extracellular MPOA glutamate changes with glutamate uptake inhibitors and COP. Glutamate was increased throughout the period of reverse dialysis of uptake inhibitors compared with BL; there was no additional increase during COP. In control animals, glutamate increased significantly during COP and during EJAC. Samples were collected at 2 min intervals. Values are expressed as mean ± SEM. *p < 0.05; **p < 0.001.