DIETARY RESTRICTION AND THE ENDOCRINE TESTIS; SIMULATION OF THE SYSTEMIC EFFECTS OF SEVERE COLD(−5 °C)

Abstract

Previous work has suggested that the degeneration of the male reproductive system caused by severe cold (−5 °C; 18–32 days) represents the sum of the following factors: (a) systemic, or metabolic alterations in various structures of the entire organism; (b) endocrine, or neurohumoral events, especially androgenic.Observation of changes in weight of the accessory sex organs, prostate and seminal vesicles, as indicators of androgenic function, permits a demonstration of the two separate effects of cold. A restricted diet given to animals at room temperature results in a loss of body weight (percentage of control) almost identical in rate and in level with the loss caused by cold, and simulates the systemic component of the action of cold; the observed loss of weight of the accessories follows the proportionality (nonlinear) between body weight and organ weight. The further loss observed in the accessories of the cold-exposed rat may then be taken to represent the endocrine component, that is, the true androgenic depression; testosterone treatment in the "starved" castrate at room temperature shows the dissociation between the two components.