INDUCTION OF PSYCHIC ESTRUS IN THE HAMSTER WITH DESOXYCORTICOSTERONE ACETATE AND ITS EFFECTS ON THE EPITHELIUM OF THE LOWER REPRODUCTIVE TRACT

Abstract

Klein (1937), Frank and Fraps (1945) and Kent and Liberman (1947, 1949) have shown that ovariectomized golden hamsters will mate after treatment with estrone and progesterone. Miescher, et at. (1938) and Wells and Greene (1939) described progestational changes in the adrenalectomized rabbit uterus after estrone-desoxycorticosterone administration. Van Heuverswyn, et al. (1939) described the uterine progestational changes induced with desoxycorticosterone in adrenalectomized rabbits and guinea pigs, and concluded that this substance was 1/6 to 1/10 as potent as progesterone in eliciting these changes. These investigators obtained psychic estrus in 6 of the 10 animals so treated. Other investigators, as Sosa Gallardo (1939), Courrier (1940), Leathern and Crafts (1940), Masson and Selye (1942), Masson (1943) and Emery (1946), have reported inducing progestational changes using desoxycorticosterone. The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to determine the effectiveness of desoxycorticosterone acetate (DCA) in inducing psychic estrus in the ovariectomized golden hamster primed with estrone; and, second