Abstract
Summary
By autotransplantation of both ovaries into the spleen of mature female rats, the ovary continues to be bathed by pituitary gonadotrophins but the pituitary is no longer bathed by estrogens because in essence the liver has been inserted between the ovaries and the pituitary and has inactivated the estrogens.
The pituitaries of such rats were assayed for their gonadotrophic content, They more nearly resembled (20.4) that of intact controls (10.3), than that of castrated controls (92.4).
From this it was concluded that (1) ovaries normally inactivate gonadotrophins and that the rise of gonadotrophins seen following castration is due to failure of such inactivation to take place. (2) Large and unphysi-ological doses of estrogen are potent inhibitors of pituitary gonadotrophic potency. (3) Physiological amounts of estrogen in the circulation exert very little inhibitory action upon the pituitary.
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