GONADOTROPIC SUBSTANCES 



other gonadotropic hormone; similarly, the "anti-serum" of 

 the gonadotropic hormone excreted in men with teratoma 

 testis prevented the ovarian effects either of that hormone or 

 of prolan. Others have reported that the effects of extracts 

 of urine from patients with teratoma testis were indis- 

 tinguishable from those of prolan in immature and hypo- 

 physectomized female rats. 



Malignant tumors of the female genital tract other than 

 chorionepithelioma.- — Aschheim and Zondek reported in 1928 

 that the urine of about one-fifth of the cases of genital 

 carcinoma contained prolan. ^^ Zondek subsequently (1930) 

 stated that urine from patients with benign or malignant 

 tumors (particularly carcinoma of the cervix and malignant 

 ovarian tumors) contained chiefly follicle-stimulating hor- 

 mone ("prolan A"). The amount of the hormone found was 

 of the order of 200 rat-units per liter of urine. It was without 

 effect on the interstitial cells of the testis of immature male 

 rodents but seemed to stimulate some of the initial stages of 

 spermatogenesis (Borst and Gostimirovic, Neumann and 

 Peter, 1931; Gostimirovic, 1932). Similar reports have been 

 made by others (e.g., Bruhl, 1932; Hamburger, 1933; 

 Saphir, 1934), although in many but not all cases the func- 

 tional condition of the ovaries was not carefully investigated. 

 In cases complicated by hypofunction of the ovaries, the 

 excretion of follicle-stimulating hormone might be the result 

 of ovarian hypofunction (as after the menopause or ovariec- 

 tomy) rather than the result of the growth of a neoplasm. 



III. THE GONADOTROPIC HORMONES FOUND IN BLOOD 



AND URINE OF CASES OF DIMINISHED GONAD 



SECRETION OR ABSENCE OF THE GONADS 



In 1929 Fluhmann reported that follicle maturation and 

 ovulation could be produced in immature white mice by the 



i^ Apparently Polano's case (1923) of myxosarcoma of the ovary belonged to this 

 group. 



