The Effect of Castration on Body Weight and Length of the Male Albino Rat

Rubinstein, H. S.; Abarbanel, A. R.; Kurland, Albert A.

doi:10.1210/endo-25-3-397

Cited by 10 publications

(6 citation statements)

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“…Foetal resorption, stillbirths and weak young have been observed by many earlier workers with vitamin A-deficient rats (Sure 1928;Mason 1935;Tansley 1936;Newton 1938). Our results show clearly th at complete deficiency of retinol results in resorption of the foetuses, while a lesser degree of deficiency allows young to be born, but not to survive.…”

Section: Supplementation With Vitamin a During Pregnancymentioning

confidence: 80%

“…This finding needs further investigation. The differences in growth rates could perhaps be due to a small extent to the partial castration of these male rats (see, for example, Lawless 1936; Rubinstein, Abarbanel & Kurland 1939) but female rats born with trace amounts of retinol also tended, though very much less de finitely than the males shown in table 5, to have smaller body weights when maintained on retinoic acid than when given retinol. The females otherwise de veloped well and had normal oestrous cycles.…”

Section: Growth Of Animals Born With Low Reserves Of Vitamin Amentioning

confidence: 97%

“…The animals in group 5 were brought through pregnancy by far larger doses of retinol than are needed to maintain gestation in orthodox vitamin A deficiency (Tansley 1936;Newton 1938;Browman 1939). Very small amounts of retinol when given to other rats on diet I I were found to have a striking effect in pre venting foetal resorption.…”

Section: Supplementation With Vitamin a During Pregnancymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Even at the lowest value, which is much below most estimates, the dose would have been equivalent to 25 i.u. vitamin A daily, and greatly in excess of the m inim al amounts of the vitamin required to maintain pregnancy (Tansley 1936;Newton 1938;Browman 1939). On the other hand, , Sharman (1949), Harris (1953) and many other workers have found th a t retinoic acid is metabolized very speedily in the body.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…vitamin A daily, and greatly in excess of the m inim al amounts of the vitamin required to maintain pregnancy (Tansley 1936;Newton 1938;Browman 1939). On the other hand, , Sharman (1949), Harris (1953) and many other workers have found th a t retinoic acid is metabolized very speedily in the body. I f the acid does not penetrate quickly into and across the placenta, its rapid catabolism might lower its potency in maintaining pregnancy below what it has been previously judged to be, using other criteria.…”

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confidence: 99%

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Vitamin A and reproduction in rats

Thompson

Howell

Pitt

1964

Proc. R. Soc. Lond. B.

326

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Retinoic acid (vitamin A acid), the carboxylic acid corresponding to the primary alcohol retinol (vitamin A), has previously been thought to fulfil all the functions of vitamin A except in vision, since rats fed a diet deficient in retinol but supplemented with retinoic acid grow well, outwardly appearing healthy, yet become blind. This paper reports that female rats on such a diet had normal oestrous cycles and became pregnant when mated, but always resorbed the foetuses and no litters were born. The first abnormalities detected were necrosis and slight polymorph infiltration around the periphery of the placental disk about the sixteenth day of pregnancy. Supplementation with retinol as late as the tenth day resulted in the birth of a healthy litter. Retinoic acid therefore maintained the early but not the later stages of gestation. When very small amounts of retinol were given during pregnancy, dead or weak young were born; on higher supplements of the vitamin, litters were weaned successfully. By this means young rats were produced with negligible stores of retinol. Male rats fed retinoic acid but not retinol had small and often oedematous testes. The germinal epithelium sloughed off and in some tubules the lumen was obliterated, but in others the lumen remained, and in these some spermatocytes and spermatogonia were held tenaciously. The seminal vesicles were smaller than in controls given retinol. In rats born with negligible stores of retinol—see above—and maintained on retinoic acid, the testes remained infantile; spermatids were never formed. Feeding retinol restored spermatogenesis in degenerate testes and promoted the normal development of testes that had remained infantile; it also ensured the growth of the seminal vesicles. Retinoic acid did not therefore serve in reproduction, although it replaced the true vitamin in maintaining life, growth and general health. Besides the latter so-called systemic function, vitamin A must have a discrete and specific role in reproduction, viz. that performed by retinol but not by retinoic acid. From among the many previously reported features of disordered reproduction in vitamin A-deficient animals, it was possible to distinguish which had arisen from a failure of this specifically ‘reproductive’ role and which from a ‘systemic’ deficiency. The inactivity of retinoic acid in reproduction demonstrates that in rats vitamin A has not two, as previously thought, but three dissociable modes of action: (1) systemic; (2) in vision; and (3) in reproduction.

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Section: Supplementation With Vitamin a During Pregnancymentioning

confidence: 80%

Section: Growth Of Animals Born With Low Reserves Of Vitamin Amentioning

confidence: 97%

Section: Supplementation With Vitamin a During Pregnancymentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Vitamin A and reproduction in rats

Thompson

Howell

Pitt

1964

Proc. R. Soc. Lond. B.

326

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Regulation of Longitudinal Bone Growth

Parker¹

1949

Arch Surg

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Sexual differences in the effects of castration on body and thymus weights in albino rats

Plagge

1953

Anat. Rec.

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I n this experiment a study was made of sexual differences in the effects of castration on the body and thymus weights of albino r8ts.I MATERIALS AND METHODSMale and female albino rats were castrated at 50 days of age and autopsied at 60 days. One hundred and sixty-nine rats from 36 litters were used. Four additional animals were excluded because of respiratory infections noted at the time of autopsy. All were born in our breeding colony and originated from a Sprague-Dawley, Inc., stock.The results include 43 castrated males and 41 sham operated males, 44 spayed females and 42 sham operated females. The brothers and sisters of each litter were distributed among experimental and control animals to allow for deviations in growth rate that might result from littermate relationship.The males were castrated through a mid-ventral incision and the females through two dorsal incisions. I n the sham operations the gonad was lifted through the incision and replaced in the animal. Experimental animals and their littermate controls were kept in the same cages and were maintained on the same diet.'I want to thank Dorothy W. Plagge f o r her many helpful suggestions and criticisms throughout the writing of this report. I also take pleasure in acknowledging the help of Dr. B. A. Schneider in the statistical aiidpsis of the data. 237

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The Effect of Castration on Body Weight and Length of the Male Albino Rat

Cited by 10 publications

References 1 publication

Vitamin A and reproduction in rats

Vitamin A and reproduction in rats

Regulation of Longitudinal Bone Growth

Sexual differences in the effects of castration on body and thymus weights in albino rats

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