Inhibition of growth and differentiation of fetal hamster gonads grafted into the adult testis.

A cytomorphological analysis of the effect of adult testes on growth and differentiation of grafted fetal testis or ovaries was performed in hamsters. Fetal gonads, taken at 14 days post-coital age, were grafted for 30 days either under the renal capsule or testicular capsule of scrotal or cryptorchid testes of adult hamsters (weight 115 +/- 23 g). Renal grafts were also performed in males castrated 30 days prior to receiving the fetal gonads.

Sex ratio of hamster fetuses assessed by gonadal morphology: effect of mother's age.

This paper describes the assessment of phenotypic sex in hamster fetuses 12-15 days postcoitum. External morphometric parameters such as body weight, crown-rump length and anus-genital distance did not permit the differentiation of males from females. The sex was determined easily by inspection of the internal genital structures under low power magnification on Days 13-15 postcoitum.

Effect of castration and testosterone on norepinephrine storage and on the release of [(3)H]norepinephrine from rat vas deferens.

Norepinephrine and dopamine-?-hydroxylase, used as noradrenergic vesicle markers, were found to be decreased in the rat vas deferens 10 days after castration. Five days of testosterone administration to castrated animals increased the enzyme activity over that of controls but did not modify norepinephrine content. In tissue fractions obtained by differential centrifugation, the highest activities of the noradrenergic markers appeared in the vesicular fraction of controls and in the soluble fraction of castrated animals.

Effect of exogenous sex steroids upon the number of germ cells and the growth of foetal ovaries grafted under the kidney capsule of adult ovariectomized hamsters.

The effect of estradiol E, progesterone P and testosterone propionate T upon growth and germ cell population of foetal ovaries transplanted under the kidney capsule of adult ovariectomized hamsters was examined. Foetal ovaries were obtained 15 days postcoitum and the host received daily subcutaneous injections of E (1 micrograms/day), P (5 mg/day), T (500 micrograms/day) or E + P in 0.1 ml oil for 25 days beginning 5 days before grafting.