The effect of anterior pituitary preparations administered during dietary anœstrus

Abstract

Disturbances of the reproductive organs of the female due to abnormal conditions of nutrition have been reported by many workers. In the humans insufficient food supply may lead to amenorrhœa and sterility (3), while experimental work on laboratory animals that partial inanition leads to ovarian atrophy and a condition of anœstrus (4, 5). A diet unbalanced in the essential constituents, though adequate in amount, may have a similar result (2). Much attention has recently been directed to the effects of vitamin deficiencies on the œstrous cycle, and of these vitamin B deficiency has probably the most striking effect. Evans and Bishop (2) showed that rats kept on diets deficient in this vitamin soon ceased to show the usual cyclic changes in the accessory organs. This anœstrous condition appeared to be due to the severe atresia occurring in the ovaries. Parkes (6) confirmed these results, and further showed that injection of the œstrus-producing hormone during the anœstrous period caused the reappearance of œstrous symptoms in the accessory organs without affecting the atresia of the ovary. It was concluded, therefore, that the anœstrus was due not to any failure of the accessory organs to respond to the œstrous stimulus, but rather to an inability of the ovaries of the deficient animals to produce œstrin. Relation between Vitamin B Deficiency and Inanition .—The difficulty of ensuring an adequate calorific intake in a small mammal during vitamin B deficiency complicates any study of the effects of the vitamin deficiency, and it is not clear from previous work whether the characteristic abrupt cessation of œstrous symptoms during vitamin B deficiency was due to the avitaminosis or to the accompanying state of partial inanition. Conversely, the apparent effect of inanition might in reality be due, at least in part, to the vitamin deficiency caused by the lowered food intake.