OVARIAN AND PITUITARY MODIFICATIONS RESULTING 



FROM STERILITY INDUCED BY VARIOUS MEANS 



(WITH DEMONSTRATIONS) 



MICHAEL F. GUYER 



Department of Zoology, University of Wisconsin 



Inasmuch as the possibility of producing a "birth-control serum" has 

 been frequently suggested, it was thought that a brief account of a recent 

 study on some of the effects of such sterility-producing materials as sperma- 

 totoxins, testicular nucleoproteins and pituitary anterior lobe might not be 

 without interest to members of this Congress. The experiments in ques- 

 tion were made mainly on rats although in a few instances rabbits were 

 used. The complete account of the work with all statistical data is being 

 published in Physiological Zoology. 



It has long been known that various laboratory animals may be rendered 

 sterile temporarily by means of spermatotoxins, developed according to 

 ordinary immunological technique through successive injections of sper- 

 matozoa. It has also been discovered that a succession of injections of 

 anterior pituitary substance in sufficient quantity is followed by temporary 

 sterility. Likewise, the present study discloses that a period of infertility 

 results from the repeated injection of testicular nucleoproteins. Obviously 

 the next step in such experimentation is to try to determine just how the 

 sterility is being accomplished and to discover other possible effects. 



SPERMATOTOXIN EXPERIMENTS 



Of twenty female rats given seven injections of an emulsion of desiccated 

 bull epididymis filled with spermatozoa, all showed retarded fertility. Six 

 were still sterile six months after the last injection, when the experiment was 

 terminated. The litters of those which resumed fertility were reduced in 

 numbers. In another experiment eighteen female rats were injected six 

 times intraperitoneally with washed bull spermatozoa at five day intervals. 

 Fertility was noticeably delayed and diminished when compared with con- 

 trol animals injected with mammary gland emulsion, and six of the sixteen 

 females which survived the treatment were apparently rendered perma- 

 nently sterile. In still a third experiment forty-one females were rendered 

 temporarily sterile by successive injections of bull spermatozoa while 



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