Identification of estrogen in the human testis.

Abstract

NUMEROUS efforts have been made over the years to identify the hormones of the testis. The earlier work, employing the testes of hogs, stallions and bulls, demonstrated (by bioassay) the androgenic and estrogenic activity of extracts from such tissue. Fellner in 1921 (1), and subsequently many others (Dohrn (2), Laqueur et al. (3), McGee (4), Brouha and Simmonet (5)) reported such experiments. Laqueur and de Jongh (6) in an article published in 1928 made the single unsupported statement regarding estrogen that “Another interesting feature is its presence in small amounts in the testes and urine of normal men.” Apparently this is the basis for the statement (7) of Berthrong et al. that Laqueur and de Jongh had demonstrated the presence of estrogen in human testes. We have examined Laqueur's publications in the European literature painstakingly, including obscure references in some German pharmacological journals, but nowhere have we found any factual evidence of an estrogen assay on human testicular tissue.