SEX-RELATED DIFFERENCES IN DENDRITIC BRANCHING OF CELLS IN THE PREFRONTAL CORTEX OF RATS

Male and female Sprague-Dawley rats were given either gonadectomies or sham surgery on the day of birth. In adulthood they were sacrificed and prepared for Golgi-Cox staining. Using a camera lucida technique, layer II/III pyramidal neurons were drawn in the anterior cingulate cortex areas 1 and 3 and the agranular insular cortex and the number of dendritic branches on the apical and basilar dendrites were then summarized. The results showed that the dendritic arbor of prefrontal cortical cells varied as a function of sex and neonatal gonadectomy. In cingulate 3, castrated males had a smaller arbor on the left relative to normal males, whereas, in cingulate 1 the reverse was found. In addition, females had less apical arbor than males in the cingulate areas, whereas, in the agranular insular cortex, females had greater apical arbor than the males. Furthermore, in this region, gonadectomized groups had less arbor than their respective control groups. Finally, in the agranular insular cortex, the dendritic arbor was greater in the left hemisphere.