The influence of sex hormones on the reticulo-endothelial cells of the uterus and a possible application to the treatment of pelvic inflammatory conditions

Abstract

A series of experiments were performed to determine the incidence of tissue macrophages in the uterus of the rabbit, as well as the macrophage response following trauma, under various hormonal conditions.The uterus of the normal female rabbit was found to contain only a few macrophages scattered throughout the propria mucosae, while they were totally absent in the atrophied uterus of spayed animals. The injection of large doses of estrin or the induction of progestational proliferation of the rabbit's uterus by the administration of urine from pregnant women resulted in an increase in the number of macrophages in less than 50 per cent of the cases. However, the growth of the spayed rabbit's uterus which resulted from estrin stimulation was associated with the appearance of large numbers of macrophages.The traumatization of one horn of the uterus resulted in the appearance of many macrophages at the site of injury in all animals, but in the normal doe or in the spayed animal this was of a purely local nature. In the rabbits given large doses of theelin or in which a progestational proliferation had been induced, the response was tremendously increased and was apparent not only at the site of injury but throughout the whole uterus.It may thus be said that when the rabbit's uterus undergoes the tissue differentiation and vascular changes brought about by the ovarian hormones estrin and progestin, it acquires the power of responding much more actively with macrophages to traumatic stimuli.The possibility of employing sex hormones in the treatment of pelvic inflammatory conditions is discussed.