Figure 1.

Aromatase inhibition prevents MAS-induced object location memory deficits in male and female mice. (A) Mice were handled, then given daily, subcutaneous administrations of the aromatase inhibitor formestane for 1 week leading up to MAS, concurrently with habituation to the object location memory (OLM) apparatus. Two hours after MAS, mice were trained with two identical objects for 10 min then tested 24 h later. (B) During the 5 min OLM test, vehicle treated male and proestrus female mice exposed to MAS had poor spatial memory compared to controls, however, male and female mice treated with formestane prior to MAS preferentially explored the moved object (n = 7–9/group). (C) During OLM training, mice did not display any object bias regardless of group assignment. (D) During OLM training, time spent investigating the objects did not vary with drug or stress, but males had longer total investigation compared to females. (E) Likewise, during OLM testing, time spent investigating the objects did not vary with drug or stress, but males had longer total investigation compared to females. ^#Main effect (p < 0.05). Post test p-values are provided above the corresponding comparisons. Individual points represent individual mice. Data are presented as mean ± SEM.