Effects of testosterone on BLA dendritic morphology of mice

• Main Author: Chhabra Simarpreet Kaur
• Other Authors: Ajai Vyas
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2018
• Subjects: DRNTU::Science
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/74154
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Testosterone has been implicated in the emotional and social behaviours of rodents; these include aggression, anxiety and fear. The aforementioned behaviours are also known to be regulated, in part, by the amygdala, a limbic region responsible for the processing of emotional stimuli. The overlap of behaviours suggests that testosterone could be exerting its effects through the amygdala. Amygdalar sensitivity to testosterone is supported by (I) the abundance of steroid hormone receptors and aromatase in the amygdala and (II) gender variation in basolateral amygdala (BLA) activity and related behaviour. Direct effects of testosterone alone on BLA (critical input region), however, remain unstudied. Here, we investigate the effects of testosterone supplementation on BLA dendritic morphology – sum of intersections and total length – in mice that can have functional consequences. Our results showed an unexpected lack of effect of testosterone on BLA dendritic morphology. Additionally, BLA dendritic morphology did not vary as a function of gender within experimental and placebo groups. Our study does not conclude BLA insensitivity to testosterone as it only considers one aspect (morphology) and could be further fine-tuned to separate BLA sub-regions. Further studies could also be supplemented with behavioural tests to provide a stronger support for the testosterone-BLA-behaviour link.