Morphometric studies of neonatal treatment with testosterone propionate

Morphometric studies of neonatal treatment with testosterone propionate on follicular growth in prepubertal rats n Female albino rats of an inbred Wistar strain had been daily given a subcutaneous injections either 0. 02 ml vehicle only, or 5 μg testosterone propionate (T. P. ) in the same volume of sesame oil on the next day after birth, and then continued this process for 10 days long. Total dose of T. P. received by each T. P. -treated group was 50 μg. All right ovaries were removed at 14、21、28、 35、56 days after birth. Growth of ovarian follicles was examined with their serial sections made by the routine histological tech- niques. In T. P. -treated groups, either the sum of numbers of TypeⅡ follicles (growing oocyte surrounded by single layer of cuboid -shaped follicular cells) and Type Ⅲ follicles (growing oocyte surrounding by single layer of column-shaped follicular cells) or the sum of numbers of Type Ⅶ follicles (antral follicles) were more than those of the control(sesame oil-treated) groups at pre- pubertal stage (e. g. , 14、21 or 28 days after birth). From these points of views, the author finds meaningfully in any prepubertal group of T. P. -treated rats, the total dose of T. P. 50 μg, given neonatally for 10 -day period, has been proved to stimulate signi- ficantly the growth of the early stage of primary follicles and preserves more numbers of the antral follicles in ovaries of the prepubertal female rats.