Sexual Development in Female Rats Treated with Cortisone.

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Abstract
Sexual development was studied in 24 pairs of pair-fed female rats given daily 1 mg of cortisone acetate subcutaneously starting at 23 days of age. This dose retarded gain in body weight and produced a significant reduction in weights of adrenal and thymus. There were no marked changes in fasting blood glucose and non-protein N or urine N in samples taken at autopsy. There was a marked increase in ovaries and uterine weights (P =<0.001) after 2-4 weeks of treatment as compared to controls. This increase tended to regress in animals autopsied 3 weeks after cessation of treatment. Increased weight of ovaries appears to be due to greater follicular development. No marked histological differences were evident in the uterus. Vaginal opening was delayed for 4-12 days; animals treated for 4 weeks showing the longer delay. The gonadotrophic hormone content of pituitaries from rats treated for 2-4 weeks appeared to be greater than that in controls when the glands were assayed by the method of increase in ovarian weights (P =< 0.001). Uterine weights were increased in recipients of pituitaries from 2-week treated animals, but they decreased if donors had been treated for 4 weeks. When this experiment was performed with animals fed ad libitum, results were similar but the difference was smaller.