Serum corticosterone concentrations in reproductively mature and inhibited deermice (Peromyscus maniculatus bairdii)

Abstract

Serum corticosterone concentrations were measured to see if there was any correlation between adrenal activity and reproductive inhibition. Males and females from two growing and one stable (asymptotic) population had significantly smaller reproductive organs (seminal vesicles, testes, uteri, ovaries) than controls. The weights of the adrenal glands of population mice were smaller, often significantly so, than those of controls, but the mean serum corticosterone concentrations were higher than those of control mice for the two growing populations and significantly higher for the asymptotic population. These data suggest that adrenal function may be associated with the reproductively inhibited condition, but not in a direct or dose-response fashion and that adrenal hyperfunction in this species may not be reflected by adrenal hypertrophy.