INTRACEREBRAL TRANSPLANTATION OF GENITAL TUBERCLE IN RAT - FATE OF PENILE BONE AND CARTILAGES

  • 1 January 1977
    • journal article
    • research article
    • Vol. 123  (APR) , 297-311
Abstract
Genital tubercles of 70 newborn male and female rats were transplanted into the brains of unrelated infant rats. Seven other tubercles were placed s.c. All female, and some male, hosts were injected with testosterone propionate. After surviving from 2-24 days, histological study of 49 successful grafts showed survival of the urethral and balano-preputial epithelia and growth of the preputial glands, which formed secretion-filled cysts and became the major component of the graft. The fate of the mesodermal tissues within the glans varied between remaining in an undeveloped state, with only pale fibrous tissue and an area of granular degeneration and giant cells; an incompletely differentiated state occurred in which erectile tissue and the anterior process of fibrocartilage formed and the glans grew but the penile bone and its secondary growth cartilage failed to appear. Grafts could reach this degree of differentiation of the glans irrespective of transplantation site, attachment to the host dura, the sex of donor or host and whether or not male hosts were given exogenous hormone.