INHIBITION OF ESTROGENIC EFFECTS ON THE REPRODUCTIVE SYSTEM OF THE MALE RAT BY TESTOSTERONE INJECTIONS

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Abstract
Fourteen daily injs. of 0.01 mg. of diethylstilbestrol were administered to immature normal [female] rats beginning on the 7th, 14th and 21st days of life. The animals were killed on the day after the last inj. Serial sections of the accessory sex organs were prepared for histological study. The squamous metaplasia observed in the epithelium of the ducts of Cowper''s glands, prostatic utricle and caudal portions of the ducts of the seminal vesicles, varied with the age of the animal at the time when injs. were given. The older the animal at the time that injs. were begun the less was the degree of stimulation of these structures. When the same procedure was followed in rats castrated on the 5th day of life a much more striking response to injs. of diethylstilbestrol was obtained. Rats castrated on the 5th day of life and injected with both .01 mg. of diethylstilbestrol and .25 mg. of testosterone propionate showed that the testosterone completely prevented the diethylstilbestrol from exerting its action. It is suggested that as the normal animal gets older it loses its capacity to respond to estrogenic stimulation because of the gradual increase in secretion of androgen by the intact testes. The bearing of these findings upon the questions of androgen-estrogen antagonism and the embryological derivation of certain estrogen-sensitive tissues is discussed.

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