Studies on the hypophysectomized ferret. VIII. -Effect of administration of anterior lobe extract, prolan, and the two combined

Abstract

A number of workers have reported on replacement therapy in hypo-physectomized animals. Cushing (1912) found that pituitary transplantations prolonged the life of hypopsectomized dogs. Smith (1927) studying rats showed that the characteristic disabilities arising from hypophysectomy in rats could be completely, or almost completely, relieved by daily pituitary implants. On the other hand, intraperitoneal injections of saline extracts not only did not restore the atrophied sex organs, but prevented their repair by the pituitary implants, Putman, Teil and Benedict (1928) stated that growth was restored in hypophysectomized dogs and rats by alkaline extracts of pituitary tissue. Reichert (1928) reported successful replacement therapy in an hypophysectomized puppy with daily fresh heterotransplants of rabbit pituitary, and in a later paper (1929), growth in hypophysectomized puppies exceeding that of normal controls, after administration of Evans' extract. Reichert and others (1932) described prolan (pregnancy urine extract) as being ineffective in three hypophysectomized dogs and one rat. More recently Collip and others (1933, a, b, c ) have reported tire results of placental extracts on a large number of hypophysectomized rats. They confirmed Smith's earlier Endings (1927) and also stroked that tire response of tire hypophysectomized female rat to A. P. L. is conditioned by the state of the ovary at the time of operation. The placental material was found to lead to thecal luteinization both in the prepubertal and in the hypophysectomized animal, a conclusion reached earlier by Noguchi (1931). Collip and others were able to obtain follicle maturation and corpus luteum formation in hypophysectomized female rats by tire combination of A. P. L. and certain extracts of pituitary, and they assume that a "complementary substance" is furnished by the pituitary which cooperates with the placental substance in its action on the ovary. In two recent papers Smith and Leonard (1933) and Leonard and Smith (1933) have studied the action of a pregnancy urine extract in hypophysectomized male and female rats. In the male they obtained a beneficial effect on spermatogenesis as a result of treatment, and in the female a cornified vaginal smear and enlargement of the ovaries, which, however, decreased with continued injection. In recently operated animals there was hypertrophy of the interstitial cells and development of new corpora lutea where treatment was postponed some interstitial hypertrophy and often corpora lutea formation occurred. The present paper deals with results of treatment of 7 hypophysectomized ferrets with: (1) an anterior pituitary extract; (2) pregnancy urine extract; and (3) the two combined.