HYPOPHYSIS AFTER CASTRATION 459 



RELATION BETWEEN INTERSTITIAL CELLS AND HYPOPHYSIS 



Since Bouin and Ancel ('03 and later) brought forward strong 

 e\ddence for the hypothesis that the interstitial cells of the testis 

 represent a gland of internal secretion, it has become the general 

 behef that it is primarily the loss of these cells which gives rise 

 to the castration effects. This is supported by the results of 

 experiments in which the vasa deferentia are tied. This leads 

 to cessation of spermatogenesis, but not destruction of the 

 interstitial cells, and in these animals there are no castration 

 effects. From the point of \dew of these observations we must 

 regard the loss of the secretion of the interstitial cells by castra- 

 tion, as affecting the balance of the endocrine organs, and in the 

 rat it seems to be chiefly the hypophysis which is stimulated. 



SUMMARY 



1. Castration in the male albino rat produces definite his- 

 tological changes in the structure of the ventral glandular por- 

 tion of the hypophysis (pars anterior) . These include changes 

 in the glandular cells, increase in size of blood channels and 

 marked production of colloid. 



2. The cells of this portion of the hypophysis are, in the classi- 

 fication here used, acidophiles, basophiles and reserve cells. 

 After castration the basophiles increase in size and number. The 

 largest ones begin to become vacuolated at two months after 

 operation. During succeeding months the number of vacuo- 

 lated cells increases; the largest ones become ring-shaped, with 

 cytoplasm and nucleus at the periphery, and the central part 

 made up of the colloid-containing vacuole. The acidophiles 

 are not much affected at first, except for a slight diminution in 

 average diameter. Gradually some of them show diminished 

 number of granules and lessened stainability. At seven months 

 after castration the number of distinctively stained acidophiles 

 is decidedly reduced (fig. 5). Some of the reserve cells in the 

 first months after castration appear to become basophile cells. 

 In the later months some of the acidophiles appear to gradually 

 dedifferentiate into reserve cells. 



