EXPERIMENTS WITH THE LOCAL ACTION OF OESTROGEN ON THE INTRASPLENIC OVARIAN GRAFT

Abstract

Small pellets of estradiol mixed with cholesterol were implanted into the ovary of the castrated guinea pig and the ovary was then grafted into the spleen. In other expts. similar pellets were implanted into the spleen in the bottom of a tunnel, close to the ovarian graft. With these pellets hemorrhagic follicles in the intrasplenic ovarian graft have not been prevented, whereas with similar pellets, when implanted subcut., prevention of hemorrhagic follicles was obtained. With intra-ovarian or intrasplenic pellets the follicular diam. did not drop below normal as with subcut. pellets. Luteini-zation was almost completely prevented instead of being enhanced as with subcut. pellets. When estradiol was allowed to act directly on the ovary without being able to reach the general circulation the behavior of the ovary was fundamentally different from that which was obtained with estrogen reaching the general circulation.