Biological Evidence for Androgen Secretion by the Early Fetal Pig Testes in Organ Culture1

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Abstract
A bioindicator method was used to detect the presence of androgens in fetal organs; 114 portions of the androgen-sensitive ventral prostate of the 21- to 28-day-old rat were grown in organ culture with entire gonads from fetal pigs of 2.0 cm C—R (crown—rump), or portions of gonads from fetal pigs of 2.5, 3.0, 3.5, 4.0, and 4.5 cm C—R lengths. After 6 days in medium 199 containing 10% bovine serum, isolated explants of prostate glands remained healthy, but showed slight regressive changes in the acinar epithelium. Testes from 2.5 and 3.0 cm C—R fetuses developed normally in vitro, and adjacent rat prostate gland explants responded with a secretory epithelium, enlarged acini containing some secretion in the lumen, and with reduction in the stroma. From 2.0 cm C—R fetuses, the gonads which differentiated into testes during cultivation for 6 days in vitro, stimulated explants of prostate to a lesser degreee. It was concluded that androgens are secreted by male gonads of the fetal pig and, whereas their production is of limited duration in the early stages of pregnancy, it commences perhaps even before sex can be distinguished histologically. Ovaries from pig fetuses at similar stages did not affect adjacent prostate explants. Adrenal glands from male and female fetuses similarly had no androgenic action on prostate explants. When testosterone was added to the medium for explants of rat prostate, for comparison, the responses in the tissues were largely similar to those seen where fetal pig testes were the source of the androgenic stimulation during cultivation.

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