INHIBITION OF SPERMIOGENESIS, PROSTATE AND SEMINAL VESICLE DEVELOPMENT IN NORMAL ANIMALS WITH ANTI-GONADOTROPHIC HORMONE SERUM

Abstract

SUMMARY: The daily injection of anti-sheep ICSH serum (A/S) for 9 days into immature male rats (30 days initial age) not only resulted in a 79% inhibition of testes weight gain as compared to the testes of controls injected with normal rabbit serum (NRS), but caused these organs to ascend into the inguinal canal. This was accompanied by a complete suppression of spermiogenesis in the A/S-injected animals, whereas the testes of all NRS-injected animals showed the presence of spermatozoa in some of the tubules. Administration of A/S to young adult male rats resulted in a 45% suppression of testicular weight, an 86% inhibition of prostate weight and a similar degree of involution of the seminal vesicles. Spermatozoa obtained from the vas deferens of the NRS-injected adult animals were highly active, while those taken from the A/S treated animals were completely immotile. Furthermore, the interstitial cells in the testes of the experimental animals of both age groups appeared as atrophic as those in hypophysectomized animals. Neither the NRS- nor A/S-injected animals showed any signs of toxicity as judged by the lack of any demonstrable effect on body-weight gain, adrenal or thymic weights. The A/S was found to be capable of giving a visible precipitin reaction in agar with as little as 1–2 μg. of the biologically most potent sheep ICSH available (Woods & Simpson, 1961), yet did not give any visible reaction with up to 200 μg. of each of the other anterior pituitary hormones in highly purified form.