ABSTRACT

Three experiments were conducted in the period between July and November with non-lactating red deer hinds to describe the effects of treatment with melatonin during this period on voluntary food intake (VFI), the onset of the breeding season, coat changes and plasma concentrations of prolactin and tri-iodothyronine (T₃), and to examine whether prolactin mediated the observed effects.

In experiment 1, eight animals were treated orally each day with either 10 mg melatonin at 16.00 h or 10 mg melatonin at 16.00 h plus 10 mg domperidone (a dopamine antagonist) given twice daily for 120 days from July; eight animals were maintained as controls. In experiment 2, the same numbers of animals per treatment were used to compare treatments in which 10 mg melatonin or 20 mg bromocriptine (a dopamine agonist) were given orally each day at 16.00 h for 119 days from late June and compared with an untreated control group. In experiment 3, six animals were treated daily for 105 days from mid August with 5 mg domperidone given i.m. and compared with six control animals.

In experiments 1 and 2, the VFI of control animals reached a peak in late August and thereafter declined. Melatonin-treated animals showed a similar pattern but the peak in VFI was significantly (P<0·05) advanced by 2 weeks compared with controls, although the VFIs of both groups were similar in November. The mean date of onset of the breeding season of the melatonin-treated animals was advanced significantly (P < 0·05) by 23 days in both experiments and the coats of these animals had less undercoat and were pale coloured and patchy compared with the controls. The changes in VFI, coat and the onset of the breeding season were associated with the rapid decline in plasma prolactin concentration after the start of the melatonin treatment and significantly (P<0·01) lower plasma T₃ concentrations than those of control animals.

In experiments 1 and 3, plasma prolactin concentrations in animals treated with domperidone were higher than those of controls for periods of 2–3 weeks. These short-term increases in plasma prolactin concentration were not associated with changes in VFI, coat or onset of the breeding season compared with controls.

In experiment 2, the pattern of decline in plasma prolactin concentrations was the same in bromocriptine-treated animals as in the melatonin-treated animals; plasma T₃ concentrations were also similar in the two groups. The pattern of change in VFI over time in bromocriptine-treated animals was significantly (P<0·05) different from that of melatonin-treated animals and there was also a reduced amount and length of winter coat in the bromocriptine-treated animals. The mean date of onset of the breeding season in bromocriptine-treated animals was not significantly different from that of controls. It was concluded that a reduction in plasma prolactin concentration induced by bromocriptine produced different effects from that induced by melatonin treatment and that the effects of melatonin are unlikely to be induced through changes in contemporary plasma prolactin concentrations.

Journal of Endocrinology (1990) 125, 241–249