| Abstract: | Sections of formalin-fixed gonads from normal rats, and adrenals and ovarian transplants from normal and castrated rats, were treated with salicylhydrazide (after pretreatment with methylhydrazine and sulphobenzaldehyde) and examined for fluorescence before and after mounting in alkali. Sites containing ketosteroids demonstrable in this way are described. Evidence is presented which suggests that luteinized thecal cells of non-cyclic ovarian transplants may secrete androgens. Ovarian tissue which has been transplanted to male rats castrated at birth behaves as in the normal female (Pfeiffer, 1936; Yazaki, 1960; Harris, 1963, 1964). Its activity does not appear to depend on the adrenal, and castration of the newborn male rat does not lead to any obvious histological change in the adrenal (Adams Smith, 1966). However, production of androgen has been observed, using biological criteria, in ovaries grafted into the ears of castrated mice (Hill, 1937a, b) and rats (Deanesly, 1938). It therefore seemed worthwhile investigating the ketosteroid content of such tissues histochemically. In this paper the histological distribution of two different types of ketosteroid in gonads of normal rats, in adrenals of normal and castrated male rats and in ovarian transplants in the eyes of male rats (either castrated at birth or at two months of age, or with intact testes) will be described. The ketosteroids were detected histochemically by condensing them with salicylhydrazide (after pretreatment with methylhydrazine and sulphobenzaldehyde) and then observing the fluoresence they emit before and after treatment with alkali (Stoward & Adams Smith, 1964). |
