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Sexual Behavior in Male and Female Rats after a Tryptophan-Free Amino Acid Mixture

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Recent Advances in Tryptophan Research

Part of the book series: Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology ((AEMB,volume 398))

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Abstract

While the decrease in brain serotonin (5-HT) is well known to enhance sexual activity in the male rat (e.g., Tagliamonte et al., 1969), the administration of antiserotonergic agents to female rats caused contradictory results (e.g., Segal and Whalen, 1970; Zemlan et al., 1973; Emery and Moss, 1984). Previous results by our laboratory (Moja et al., 1989) showed that the acute administration of an amino acid mixture lacking tryptophan (TRY) causes a 40% depletion in whole brain 5-HT. This is because the TRY-free amino acid mixture will induce new protein synthesis, and endogenous blood and brain TRY is incorporated into proteins (Moja et al., 1991).

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© 1996 Plenum Press, New York

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Moja, E.A., Benedetti, F. (1996). Sexual Behavior in Male and Female Rats after a Tryptophan-Free Amino Acid Mixture. In: Filippini, G.A., Costa, C.V.L., Bertazzo, A. (eds) Recent Advances in Tryptophan Research. Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology, vol 398. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-0381-7_12

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-0381-7_12

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4613-8026-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4613-0381-7

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