EFFECTS OF CASTRATION AND TREATMENT WITH SEX STEROIDS ON THE SYNTHESIS OF SERUM CHOLINESTERASEIN THE RAT1

Abstract

IN THE preliminary studies by Birkhauser and Zeller (1940) and Zeller and Birkhauser (1941) regarding the influence of sex in rats upon the cholinesterase content of the liver, it was stated that while female livers contain 5 to 8 times as much cholinesterase as the male, ovariectomy results in a lowering of the enzyme content in the female to a value somewhat above that found in normal males. Orchidectomy, on the other hand, was said to result in a slight elevation. They also studied the effects of injection of estradiol into castrated animals of either sex and found that after such treatment the liver enzyme content was of an order similar to that in normal females. The limitations as discussed by Sawyer and Everett (1946) with respect to the work of the Swiss investigators upon intact animals also apply to their studies on castrated rats.