Abstract
Summary
The effects of various pituitary extracts and androgenic steroids on the sex-organs of the estrogen-treated immature male rat were studied. Testosterone induced growth of the seminal vesicles and ventral prostate with similar threshold-doses and dose-response slopes for both organs, but did not cause testicular enlargement except at high dose levels. Purified ovine LH and pregnenolone induced growth of the ventral prostate but the dose-response slope was considerably less than that obtained with testosterone, androstenedione, 17 α hydroxyprogester-one, progesterone, dehydroepiandrosterone or crude pituitary extracts. Unlike testosterone, neither purified LH nor pregnenolone induced growth of the seminal vesicles except at very high dose levels, but both caused enlargement of the testes at doses that barely effected prostate size.
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