Allan T. Kenyon

THE ANABOLIC EFFECTS OF THE ANDROGENS AND SOMATIC GROWTH IN MAN

Excerpt In 1889 Brown-Sequard,1then 72 years old, injected a testicular extract into himself and felt a return of his youthful sense of well-being. Little substance remains from this early experime...

Effect of Testosterone Propionate in Eunuchoidism

Conclusion Testosterone propionate causes enlargement of the prostate and progression of secondary sex characters in the eunuchoid, together with a gain in weight, nitrogen and sodium retention, and a slight increase in the basal metabolic rate.

THE ANABOLIC EFFECTS OF CHORIONIC GONADOTROPIN IN NORMAL YOUNG MEN

It is now possible to ascribe an anabolic effect to the testicular secretion involving the deposition of protein and bone salts in somatic structures (1, 2). Such processes may be interpreted as contributing to the physiological spurts in height and weight during puberty and adolescence (1). As growth ceases and the youth moves toward the nitrogen equilibrium of maturity the influences of anabolic forces that operated clearly enough during active growth become uncertain. It may be presumed that the amounts of testicular secretion necessary to maintain the functions of the genitalia are no longer sufficient to exert progressive anabolic force elsewhere. Yet there is no indication that the capacity of somatic tissues to respond to androgens has reached its uttermost limit with the assumption of adult life. The anabolic effects of testosterone propionate may be well demonstrated to some degree and for a while in normal young men (3, 4) and even in advanced age (5). A multiplicity of subjects of all ages and with a variety of diseases have been found sensitive to testosterone propionate. Although the clinical circumstances have been too numerous and too complex for treatment here, ample evidence exists that serious resistance to the anabolic effects of the androgens must be rare indeed. The question now arises as to whether the secretory capacity of the mature testis is ever suf-

Thyroid hypertrophy in the rat with reference to the effect of light.

In describing the thyroid hypertrophy and colloid loss in rats exposed to cold and darkness for 10 to 25 days the writer 1 noted that he had not seen any striking changes due to darkness alone. Bergfeld 2 had previously stated that in 4 to 6 weeks, absence of ultraviolet light caused thyroid hypertrophy irrespective of the environmental temperature and that in his small series no effects attributable to cold were found if the room were illuminated. While students using the rat have not agreed on this effect of darkness, conclusive evidence that in the chick absence of ultraviolet light for 55 to 105 days results in marked thyroid hypertrophy and colloid loss has been provided by Turner and Benedict. 3 The interesting possibility thus suggested that light may play some vital rôle in the formation of the thyroid hormone has led the writer to further examine its possible influence under the conditions of temperature and diet used in his earlier work. From March 8 to June 13, 1933, (98 days) 10 albino rats of about 90 gm. in weight were kept in a dark room at an average temperature of 26.5°C. and compared with 9 litter-mates of the same sex kept in ordinary room light at 25° and irradiated an average of 40 minutes weekly at 24 inches with an Alpine sun (Mercury vapor) lamp. During the last 75 days of this study 3 rats of about 60 gm. and 6 uncontrolled young, born in the dark, were added to the series. The diet (yellow corn 62; linseed oil meal 13; whole milk powder 18; casein 4; alfalfa 2; sodium chloride 0.5; and calcium carbonate 0.5) had an iodine content of 13.5 gamma/100 gm. (second month) and 15.6 gamma/100 gm. (third month).