ACCESSORY MAMMALIAN REPRODUCTIVE GLANDS 



425 



Fig. 6.46. Rat male and female prostates. Photomicrographs X 650. Bouin-hematoxylin 

 preparation. Top, host prostate from an adult virgin female; middle, male prostate graft from 

 the above female host; bottom, prostate from a pregnant female. Note the semi-regressed 

 epithelium in the female prostate of the virgin female host compared with the columnar 

 epithelium and light areas in the male prostate graft and the prostate from a pregnant fe- 

 male. (From D. Price, Anat. Rec, 82, 93-113, 1942.) 



trophin is administered. Great stimulation 

 of ventral prostate grafts in the ovarian 

 bursa of females was obtained by Ponse 

 (1954a). 



The female prostate gland is normally 

 jiartially retrogressed in adult females ex- 

 cept during pregnancy and lactation (Fig. 

 6.46) when it appears stimulated (Burrill 

 and Greene, 1942; Price, 1942); in spayed 

 females it is atrophic (Price, 1942). The 

 striking development of the female prostate 

 in pregnancy and lactation in a number of 

 species of mammals is discussed in Section 

 I. Hernandez (1942) obtained stimulation 

 of female prostates by autotransplants of 

 oA-aries into ears, hind legs, or tails of rats. 



Transplantation of rat ventral prostates 

 into virgin females shows that the male 



prostate has a lower threshold to ovarian 

 androgens than the female gland and main- 

 tains high epithelium and cellular light 

 areas whereas the epithelium of the host 

 prostate (Fig. 6.46) is low and retrogressed 

 (Price, 1942). 



4- Progesterone 



The administration of progesterone in 

 relatively enormous doses has stimulating 

 effects as determined by weight, histologic 

 structure, and function of some of the ac- 

 cessory glands in castrated male rats, mice, 

 and guinea pigs. The literature has been 

 reviewed by Greene, Burrill and Thomson 

 (1940), Parkes (1950), and Price, Mann 

 and Lutwak-Alann (1955). 



Burkhart (1942) treated adult 40-day- 



