Anti-glucocorticoid effects of melatonin in young rats

Abstract

Administration of the pineal hormone melatonin to young female rats provided significant prevention of the injurious effects (decrease of body weight gain, atrophy of the thymus and adrenals, glucosuria, elevation of the blood level of glucose, free fatty acid, triglyceride, and total cholesterol) caused by three different glucocorticoids, i.e. dexamethasone, prednisolone, and hydrocortisone. Although these protective effects of melatonin were slightly more remarkable in dexamethasone-treated rats than in prednisolone- or hydrocortisone-treated rats, our hypothesis of melatonin's anti-glucocorticoid effects is said to have been confirmed rather universally and with a considerably wide range through this experiment.