Abstract
Summary
Prolonged castration or castration combined with adrenalectomy had virtually no effect on epithelial cell height in the ventral prostate glands of outbred Syrian hamsters. Although the wet weight of the prostate glands of adult and young adult hamsters increased following castration, the acid phosphatase activity in these glands decreased dramatically. The increase in wet weight was apparently due to the increased accumulation of proteinaceous secretions rather than to prostatic hyperplasia, since the DNA content of the glands decreased significantly after castration for 2 weeks. When administered in vivo, the antiandro-gen cyproterone acetate had no detectable effect on prostatic epithelial cell height or overall wet weight. The data suggest that although the ventral prostate of the outbred hamster is an androgen-responsive tissue, neither its wet weight nor its secretory epithelium show typical postcastrational atrophy.
This investigation was partially supported by USPHS Training Grant ES0098-5. The authors are grateful to Mrs. Pauline Putney for her care of the laboratory animals in this study and to Professor W. Hansel for suggestions during preparation of the manuscript.
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