EFFECT OF CHRONIC INANITION ON THE GONADOTROPHIC CONTENT OF THE PITUITARY GLAND

Abstract

Chronic or acute inanition interrupts the sexual cycle in the albino rat, and is associated with regressive changes in the ovaries. Similar effects have been described in other animals, and 'war amenorrhea' and sterility are well known to occur among severely malnourished women. The decreased amount of gonadotrophins in the urine of these women and the fact that oestrus can be re-established in underfed animals by either pituitary or chorionic gonadotrophins suggests that anoestrus is not due to primary ovarian dysfunction but to lack of gonadotrophic hormones. This view is supported by various authors, but surprisingly enough only a few of them have endeavoured to measure the actual gonadotrophic power of the anterior lobe during inanition, and this only by the implantation method, which is liable to considerable experimental error as shown by the discrepancies in the results. In the present work, after verification of the oestrus-inhibiting effect of inanition