The effect of testosterone on water distribution on secondary sex glands of male rats.

Abstract

Alterations of water distribution have been reported as one of the earliest demonstrable effects of estrogens on the uterus (Talbot, Lowry and Astwood, 1940; Roberts and Szego, 1947) and androgens on the seminal vesicles (Rudolph and Samuels, 1949). The latter reported an increased intracellular water of the seminal vesicles, estimated by chloride space, as early as ten hours after androgen administration to castrated rats. Other changes occurring at this time were increases in Qo2, weight, and fructose content. It was also suggested that changes in organic metabolism preceded the shifts in water and electrolytes and cell growth. In the present study extracellular water was estimated with isotopic sodium in the seminal vesicles and prostates of uncastrated rats and of castrated rats with and without the administration of testosterone. METHODS Male albino rats from Sprague-Dawley Inc. were used in these experiments. When 92 clays of age the animals were castrated and twenty-eight days after castration a si...