Abstract
Female sex hormone obtained from human pregnancy urine, prepared and assayed as previously described (D'Amour and Gustavson 1 ) was daily injected into 4 immature dogs (3 females and 1 male) over a period of time 6 to 17 weeks in duration. The daily doses varied from 25 to 800 rat units. At the end of 4 months histological examination of the dog receiving the largest dosage revealed essentially no pathology in the heart, arteries, liver, spleen, adrenals and thymus. The tubules of the kidneys contained some albumin; the glomeruli were normal. Hyperplasia of the thyroid was marked. Maxillary prognathism in these dogs was demonstrable. The anterior lobe of the hypophysis was much smaller than in the normal dog. The cytoplasm of the chromophobes of this lobe was diminished in amount. The posterior lobe seemed relatively much larger than in the normal dog. The nipples of all dogs enlarged. The external genitalia and uterus of the female dogs increased in size. Hyperplasia of the glands of the uterine endometrium was pronounced but no hemorrhagic discharge was observed. The ovaries of the experimental dogs were less than half the size of the control dogs, containing relatively more stroma and no mature follicles.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.