THE EFFECTS OF CASTRATION AND TESTOSTERONE PROPIONATE ON THE STRIATED PERINEAL MUSCULATURE IN THE RAT

Abstract

INVESTIGATIONS OF THE MORPHOLOGICAL changes in striated muscle following castration or sex hormone treatment are meager, since in most of the striated muscles the changes are not readily observable. Papanicolaou and Falk1 described an hypertrophy of the temporal muscles in the guinea pig after testosterone administration; they didnot,however, present quantitative data. In the course of certain experiments it was accidentally observed that castration caused a marked decrease in the bulk of the striated perineal musculature, the bulbo cavernosus, ischio cavernosus, and levator ani. Since comparable changes were not seen in the other striated muscles, the following experiments were undertaken to test the effect of castration and male sex hormone ontheperineal musculature (herein designated as perineal muscle complex) (fig. 1 and 2). Sixty-day-old normal rats of the Long-Evans strain were divided as evenly as possible into the following groups. Group 1;9 animals were subjected to castration, the epididymis be...