THE MITOGENIC ACTIONS OF TESTOSTERONE PROPIONATE AND OF OESTRONE ON THE EPIDERMIS OF THE ADULT MALE MOUSE

Abstract

The rate of mitosis was measured in the ear epidermis of 80 castrated or normal male mice, treated with injns. of 0.25 mg. of testosterone propionate, or 0.025 mg. of estrone, or oil alone. The epidermal mitotic activity was considerably less in castrated than in normal mice, but the speed of completion of each mitosis was slightly greater in the former; by subcut. injns. of testosterone propionate the epidermal mitosis rate was restored to normal both as regards the numbers of mitoses and as regards their speed of completion; the epidermal mitosis rate of castrated male mice could be stimulated by subcut. injns. of estrone. However, with the doses given, the number of epidermal mitoses induced by estrone was considerably greater than that induced by testosterone propionate. In addition, instead of an increase in the time of completion of each mitosis to about 2.5 hrs., such as followed the treatment with testosterone propionate, estrone reduced the time of completion to about 1 hr.