THE EFFECTS OF PREPUBERTAL OVARIECTOMY ON CONNECTIVE TISSUE GENERATION

Abstract

Polyvinyl sponges were implanted subcutaneously in 84-day-old female rats and in prepubertally ovariectomized rats of the same age. Animals from both groups were killed 72 ± 1 hours later. The mean hexosamine concentrations in sponge tissue were, in the intact animals and ovariectomized rats respectively, 340 ± 28 and 258 ± 19 μg hexosamine per 100 mg dry lipid-free tissue. The confidence intervals were derived from the Student's t test (5%). Prepubertal ovariectomy decreases the hexosamine concentration of the sponge tissue during the early stages of connective tissue generation in young adult rats and may have a similar effect on serum hexosamine. The mean hydroxyproline concentrations in the sponge tissue of the remaining animals, which were killed 10 days after implantation, were 1027 ± 77 and 777 ± 130 μg hydroxyproline per 100 mg dry lipid-free tissue for the ovariectomized and intact animals respectively (5% confidence interval). Prepubertal ovariectomy increases the rate of connective tissue generation in young adult rats. The ovariectomized rats were heavier at death than the intact animals and no apparent histologic differences were noted in the sponge tissue recovered from the two groups.