THE ROLE OF THE ADRENAL CORTEX IN MAMMARY DEVELOPMENT AND ITS RELATION TO THE M AMMOGENIC ACTION OF THE ANTERIOR PITUITARY

Abstract

THE POSSIBLE involvement of the adrenal cortex in mammary development was first indicated by the experiments of Van Heuverswyn, Folley and Gardner (1939) who showed that desoxycorticosterone promoted mammary duct growth in immature male mice. Later, though Chamorro (1945) working under rather different conditions observed no more than slight and irregular mammary duct stimulation in mice in response to desoxycorticosterone, it has been shown that desoxycorticosterone will evoke growth of the mammary alveolar tissue in the monkey (Speert, 1940), mouse (Mixner and Turner, 1942) and guinea pig (Nelson, Gaunt and Schweizer, 1943). Other crystalline adrenal cortex steroids have not yet been examined from this point of view, but in keeping with the foregoing results it may be noted that Edwards, Shimkin and Shaver (1938) observed gynecomastia in a man treated with cortical extract, while Nelson (1941) has observed mammary development in hypophysectomized-gonadectomized rats treated with adrenotrophin.