Abstract
The results reported from the injection of P.U. into hypophysectomized female rats are conflicting. Reichert et al. 1 report no effect with such treatment; Wade et al. 2 agree, though reporting some luteinization and oestrus; Noguchi 3 reports thecal proliferation, follicular destruction and oestrus; Freud 4 reports similar effects as with A.P. treatment; Collip et al. 5, 9 report thecal luteinization and induction of “a continuous oestrus from a shrinking ovary” in the adult, but not in the immature female.
We have injected over 40 mature and immature hypophysectomized female rats exclusive of controls with Antuitrin S (P.U. extract). Treatment was begun immediately or postponed 16-81 days after operation.
Animals injected immediately after operation, whether mature or immature, run a cornified (with an occasional mixed) type of vaginal smear. In the postponed treatments, definite oestrus effects were invariably present as evidenced by larger uteri and occasionally by the appearance of a mixed or cornified vaginal smear.
The ovaries always enlarge, though with prolonged treatment they decrease again as in similarly-treated normal females. Ovaries of females treated immediately after operation showed hypertro-phied interstitial cells and new corpora lutea, which were difficult to distinguish from those already existing in the case of the adult. The ovaries of females with postponed treatment showed the same marked interstitial cell hypertrophy and often corpora lutea formation. We are not prepared to state that these bodies arise only from thecal cells. Careful studies such as that of Corner on the corpus luteum of the sow will have to be made before the participation of the granulosa can be eliminated. In no case were follicles stimulated to grow.
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