THE RELATION OF THE ADRENAL CORTEX TO THE MALE REPRODUCTIVE SYSTEM

Abstract

The development of the secondary reproductive organs of [male] rats and mice was compared in normal, in castrated. and in castrate-adrenalectomized animals maintained on adequate doses of cortical hormone. The results indicated that the adrenal gland did not exert an androgenic function in the normal animal. Neither the "juvenile" cells of the rat nor the "x-zone" of the mouse normally exerted an androgenic function. The adrenal cortical hormone was found to exert no androgenic effects on the development of the ventral and dorsal prostate glands, of Cowper''s gland, or of the seminal vesicles of normal or castrated mice and rats. Extracts of human or pig fetal adrenal glands and of x-zone bearing glands of mice were also found to be devoid of androgenic activity.