Development of a Vagina in Male Rats by Inhibiting Androgen Receptors with an Anti-androgen During the Critical Phase of Organogenesis

Abstract

By treatment of gravid rats during the second half of gestation and of the newborn during the first 3 post-natal weeks with an anti-androgen, l,2α-methylene-6- chloro- Δ⁴⁶-pregnadiene-17α-ol-3,20-dione- 17a-acetate (cyproterone acetate), we induced the development of a vagina in male animals. This vagina was narrower and also appeared slightly shorter than the vagina in normal female animals. Following administration of estradiol, the vagina showed an estrogenic reaction, which could not be differentiated from that of normal female animals. (Endocrinology78: 628, 1966)