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The Role of the Gonad-Stimulating Hormones in Reproduction

California

Abstract

Up to the beginning of the last decade, evidence had slowly gathered that the pituitary body was intimately related to reproduction. In 1910 and 1912, Crowe and Aschner showed that the removal of the pituitary caused atrophy of the genitalia. As late as 1924, Evans, in his Harvey Society address, was called upon to re-state boldly the role of this gland, and in particular its anterior lobe, as an endocrine body. The Long-Evans experiments on the effect of pituitary extracts in promoting bodily growth, had recorded also observations on gonadal changes shortly to be ascribed to specific gonad-stimulating properties of these same extracts. Allen and Smith about this time indicated the general nature of the morphological and glandular disturbances following pituitary ablation, which included cessation of bodily growth, and retrogressive changes in the thyroids, gonads and adrenals. Following hypophysectomy in infants there is a permanent sexual infantilism. In the adult male, following this operation, testes become vestigial, the germ layers are reduced, and accessory organs depending on the integrity of the testis, such as the prostate, seminal vesicles and Cowpers glands, become minute and atrophic. In the adult female, ovaries, together with the uterus, tubes and vagina, regress. Ovogenesis, be it noted, continues, but ova do not develope beyond primary follicles. The conveyance to these animals of implants or extracts of the anterior pituitary gland leads to complete repair and even efflorescence of the gonads and genital tracts. Thence derives the conception of a normal control of these structures, and of the sex life of the individual, by the pituitary body, in virtue of its secreted hormones.