The hypophsial control of the x-ray sterilized ovary.

Abstract

SUMMARY Adult rats which had been previously sterilized by means of X-rays were hypophysectomized a fortnight after the onset of continuous vaginal cornification (which begins within 40 days of X-irradiation [Mandl & Zuckerman, 1956]). The animals, including non-irradiated hypophysectomized controls, were killed at periods of 5–70 days after hypophysectomy. Cornified cells disappeared from the vaginal smear of non-irradiated rats within 3, and of irradiated rats within 4 days after hypophysectomy. The ovaries involuted rapidly in both groups of animals. Stromal cells decreased in size and post-hypophysectomy 'deficiency cells' appeared. On the other hand, the rate of uterine involution was slower in the X-irradiated animals after hypophysectomy than in the non-irradiated hypophysectomized controls. This finding indicates that in the absence of the pituitary, the X-irradiated ovary can produce more oestrogen than a non-irradiated ovary, or that the oestrogen it produces is biologically more active. After treatment with gonadotrophin, the 'deficiency cells' in the ovaries of both groups of animals disappeared. The X-irradiated hypophysectomized animals responded to the gonadotrophin less vigorously (as judged by an increase in ovarian and uterine size) than did the hypophysectomized controls.