Interrelationships Between Fetal Adrenals and Maternal Ovaries: Atrophy of the Fetal Rat Adrenal Following Ovariectomy of the Mother Rat

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Abstract
Ovariectomy of the pregnant rat, with concomitant injection of progesterone to prevent abortion, resulted in atrophy of the fetal adrenal. This atrophy could be prevented by the injection of small doses of estradiol benzoate but not by testosterone propionate or larger doses of estradiol benzoate. These results suggest that the ovaries of pregnant rats produce some substances, probably estrogenic, that influence the fetal adrenal or the fetal pituitary-adrenal system. Large doses of estradiol benzoate induced hypertrophy of the maternal adrenal. Simultaneous adrenalectomy and ovariectomy of the pregnant rat resulted in hypertrophy of the fetal adrenal and suggest that the events which led to fetal adrenal atrophy in the ovariectomized animal were superseded by the events which led to fetal adrenal hypertrophy in the adrenalectomized animal.