ACTION OF PROGESTERONE ON THE GENITAL ORGANS OF THE UNPRIMED RHESUS MONKEY

Abstract

THE CORPUS LUTEUM HAS LONG BEEN RECOGNIZED as the organ responsible for many of the specific structural and functional modifications which occur in the secondary sex organs of mammals during the reproductive period. Among these changes may be mentioned the progestational proliferation of the endometrium and the lobular development of the mammary gland. In the menstruating primates the corpus luteum also plays an important although less clearly defined r6le in the initiation of menstruation. In the course of physiologic events the corpus luteum exercises its functional activity upon organs which have previously been subjected to estrogenic stimulation; and in the primates at least, the luteal body continues to produce estrogenic hormone in addition to its specific secretion, progesterone. Previous experiments designed to test the various functions of progesterone haveindicated the necessity for the preliminary or concurrent administration of estrogens (the “one-two reaction” of Hisaw). Castrated animals, w...