Abstract
Recent experiments have shown that the anterior hypophysis, in addition to its primary growth inducing function, has a secondary, apparently specific effect upon the sex organs. Under the influence of transplants of anterior hypophysis taken from various mammals, immature mice and rats have been brought to precocious sexual maturity (Smith and Engle, 1 Zondek and Aschheim 2 ). One of the most striking effects produced by the anterior hypophyseal transplants has been the luteinization of follicles in the ovaries of the female host animal. Within 2 days after the first transplantation the ovaries began to show hyperemia accompanied by progressive growth of follicles. About 2 to 3 days later a distinct luteinization process was initiated in a number of follicles, which changed into atretic corpora lutea. Similar phenomena had been previously recorded by Evans and Long 3 after intraperitoneal injections of fresh anterior hypophyseal substance. These authors believe the whole reaction to represent “a powerful, specific stimulus to lutein cell transformation”. This interpretation of specificity has been expanded by later investigators who attribute all the changes, caused by the transplants upon sex glands, to a separate “extra-gonadal” or “sex maturing” anterior pituitary hormone. Through the discovery of this particular hormone, in large quantities, in the urine of pregnant women, Aschheim and Zondek 4 developed an important method for diagnosing pregnancy. Injections of urine from pregnant women given to immature female mice resulted as with anterior hypophyseal transplants in the development of atretic corpora lutea and of hemorrhagic spots in the ovaries.
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