258 



HYPOPHYSIS AND GOXADOTROPHIC HORMONES 



and LH content of the human hypophysis in 

 infancy, childhood, maturity, and old age. 

 The glands were obtained from persons dy- 

 ing without prolonged terminal illness and 

 were obtained within 1 to 4 hours after 

 death. The anterior lobes were dissected 

 free, weighed, and kept frozen until time of 

 use. The glands from a given age group 

 were homogenized, pooled, and administered 

 to hypophysectomized immature male and 

 female rats in total doses of homogenate 

 corresponding to 1, 3, 10, and 30 mg. wet 

 weight of anterior lobe tissue; FSH was 

 indicated by follicle growth or stimulation 

 of seminiferous tubules, LH by repair of the 

 Leydig cells. In essential confirmation of 

 earlier studies, they found that the hypophy- 

 sis of the human infant has no detectable 

 FSH or LH activity. By childhood (4 years) 

 both hormones were present in minimal 

 ciuantity. The hypophyses from women of 

 reproductive age and mature men were 

 notably potent in both FSH and LH: they 

 were essentially equipotent per unit of tis- 

 sue for each hormone, but the female gland 

 being heavier had a total content greater 

 than that of the male. Using different end 

 points and methods of collection, Witschi 

 (1940), Witschi and Riley (1940), and 

 Witschi (1952) reported a sex difference — 

 they list in round figures the total FSH 

 unitage in hypophyses of humans dying 

 after prolonged illness as 50 R.U. for mature 

 males and 10 R.U. for nonpregnant mature 

 females. In keeping with the observations 

 of Henderson and Rowlands (1938), Witschi 

 (1940) and Witschi and Riley (1940) found 

 the human hypophysis to contain not more 

 than traces of LH as determined by the 

 Weaver finch or rat test. However, the valid- 

 ity of this claim of the Iowa group has been 

 challenged by the more meaningful positive 

 findings of Bahn, Lorenz, Bennett and Al- 

 bert (1953a, c) that the adult human hy- 

 pophysis is moderately rich in LH. 



Burt and Velardo (1954) studied individ- 

 ual hypophyses from 18 i)atients, 9 males 

 and 9 females, ranging in age from 19 to 

 82 years. Most of these patients had died 

 after prolonged illness and some had re- 

 ceived hormone therapy. The glands were 

 assayed by injecting 7.5 mg. of fresh gland 

 homogenate into hypophysectomized male 

 and female rats. Of these human liypoi)hy- 



ses, 6 produced reasonably good follicle 

 growth and formation of corpora lutea, 6 

 produced only minimal follicle stimulation, 

 and 6 exhibited no gonadotrophic activity. 

 In this small series the authors were unable 

 to detect any correlation of pituitary po- 

 tency with sex or age. It is interesting, too, 

 that they were unable to predict the gonado- 

 trophic potency in individual glands on the 

 basis of a sampling of tlie relative percent- 

 age of cell types present. 



There is general agreement that the con- 

 centration of gonadotrophin in the hypophy- 

 sis tends to increase in old age in many 

 animals, but it is only in women that in- 

 creased release is thoroughly documented, 

 this being demonstrated by the increase in 

 the blood and urinary titer of gonadotrophin 

 at the time of the menopause. Witschi and 

 Riley (1940) and Witschi (1956) reported 

 that the total FSH content of the hypophy- 

 ses of postmenopausal women is 4- to 5-fold 

 greater than that of women of reproductive 

 age. The hypophyses of old men show great 

 variability, with some glands reaching the 

 high i)otency of those of postmenopausal 

 women and castrated men. Older men show 

 also a fairly consistent small increase in 

 urinary gonadotrophin beginning at about 

 60 years of age (Pedersen-Bjergaard and 

 T0nnesen, 1948). 



3. Gonadectomy 



An increase in the gonad-stimulating po- 

 tency of the anterior hypophysis following 

 gonadectomy or total loss of gonadal secre- 

 tory functions through any means other 

 than primary pituitary failure has been 

 found to be an almost invariable occurrence 

 especially in the warm-blooded vertebrates. 

 An early report of a negative finding in 

 castrated pigeons (Schooley, 1937) needs 

 confirmation, inasmuch as Breneman (1945) 

 found that the capon pituitary is distinctly 

 more potent than that of cockerels of the 

 same age. Although the gonadotrophin con- 

 tent in sheep pituitary is high, it is at its 

 l)eak during the time of reproductive qui- 

 escence (Kammlade, Welsh, Nalbandov and 

 Norton, 1952) and increases in the ewe fol- 

 lowing sjiaying (Warwick, 1946). 



An objective of recent studies has been 

 to elucidate the effects of gonadectomy on 



