Neonatal diethylstilbestrol alters blood pressure and CNS drinking response in SHR and WKY rats.

Neonatal SHR and WKY rats were treated with diethylstilbestrol or propylene glycol (controls). Control SHR had higher blood pressures than WKY rats. Neonatal diethylstilbestrol treatment delayed the onset and full expression of hypertension in the male SHR but had no effect on blood pressure in the other animals. Neonatal diethylstilbestrol treatment had an adverse effect on body weights of male SHR and WKY rats through 98 days of age (not statistically decreased thereafter). Adult female SHR and WKY rats treated neonatally with diethylstilbestrol had body weights significantly greater than the control females. Neonatal treatment with diethylstilbestrol resulted in precocious puberty in female SHR and WKY rats. Control female SHR and WKY rats and female SHR treated neonatally with diethylstilbestrol had attenuated angiotensin - II induced drinking response from the central administration of estrogen in adulthood. The angiotensin II - induced drinking response was not significantly attenuated by central estrogen in adult WKY females exposed neonatally to diethylstilbestrol. Neonatal diethylstilbestrol treatment of WKY female rats appears to have altered neuroendocrine secretions that control CNS drinking behavior.