Abstract
By utilizing the synergistic activity of certain pituitary extracts when combined with gonadotropic hormone, such as has been demonstrated on ovarian stimulation with pregnancy urine, 1 Evans 2 has been able to detect otherwise unappreciable amounts of gonadotropic substance in the urine of normal males. Because of this synergism and because it also resembled pregnancy urine, in causing a marked luteinization in the ovaries of his test animals, Evans referred to the gonadotropic substance in male urine as a “prolan body”.
It has also been shown that a follicle stimulating substance, similar to the gonadotropic material occurring in the urine of castrates, is present in amounts of several rat units to the 24-hour excretion in the urine of normal adults, both male and female. 3 This follicle stimulating hormone has been reported to be absent from the urine of children before puberty. 3 We wish to report the finding of the “prolan” type of gonadotropic substance in the urine of children after the age of 4-5 years.
We employed the method of synergism referred to above. The urines of normal male and female children were extracted by the Katzman and Doisy benzoic acid method. A dose of this urine extract equivalent to 1/3-2/3 of a 24-hour excretion and administered over a 3-day period had no effect on the immature rat ovary at the end of 96 hours. Our pituitary extract was made with ammoniated alcohol, according to Evans, 1 and in the dosage used caused only a slight increase in ovarian weight of our test animals (an average increase of 6 mg. over the average control weight of 16 mg.).
When the 2 extracts were combined at the stated dosages a definite synergism, varying in magnitude with the age of the child, was observed.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.