Lactogen Content of Pituitary Glands from Rats on Vitamin Deficient Rations. ∗

Abstract

Due to the general influence of the pituitary gland on body function it is important to increase our knowledge of those factors which alter pituitary secretion. Marrian and Parkes 1 reported that vitamin B deficiency, causing loss of body weight or partial inanition, brought about the cessation of estrus and atrophic changes in the ovary. The administration of anterior pituitary substances during the experimental anestrus resulted in the immediate appearance of estrous changes and in ovulation. Evans and Simpson 2 showed that there was a decreased amount of the gonad-stimulating hormone present in the anterior pituitaries taken from animals fed a diet deficient in the antineuritic factor. Mason and Wolfe 3 found an increase in the gonad-stimulating capacity of the anterior pituitaries of male rats which had been fed a diet deficient in vitamin A and which induced xerophthalmia. Furthermore, vitamin E deficiency seemed to have the same effect. Nelson 4 assayed pituitary glands from rats which had been on vitamin E deficient rations and found these glands more potent for the gonad-stimulating hormone than pituitaries from normal animals, but less potent than glands from castrates. Female pituitaries were comparable to glands obtained from normal males. However, Rowlands and Singer 5 reported that vitamin E deficiency caused a definite decrease in the capacity of the pituitary body of the non-pregnant rat to cause ovulation in the estrous rabbit and therefore, a decrease in the content of luteinizing or ovulation-producing substance.

We were interested in determining the lactogen† content of pituitary glands from rats on vitamin deficient rations.