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Effects of Exogenous Hormones on the Male Reproductive Organs of Vitamin A-deficient Rats

Laboratory of Nutrition and Endocrinology, National Institute of Arthritis and Metabolic Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland 20014

The purpose of this study was to determine if the degenerative changes seen in testes in vitamin A deficiency could be prevented by administering hormones. Rats deficient in retinol but supplemented with retinoic acid were injected daily with various doses of testosterone propionate, human chorionic gonadotropin, pregnant mare serum, follicle stimulating hormone, luteinizing hormone, follicle-stimulating hormone plus testosterone propionate and anterior pituitary powder for 35 days. The effects on the testicular histology and the weights of the reproductive organs were studied. No histological evidence of spermatogenic stimulation other than a slight increase in tubule size in rats treated with pregnant mare serum was found from the hormone treatments. The accessory organs in retinol-deficient rats were normal histologically and responded fully to exogenous hormones. It is concluded that degenerative changes in the seminiferous tubules in the testes in retinol deficiency are not due to insufficiency of gonadal hormones. A confirmation of this was obtained by the finding that plasma testosterone levels in retinol-deficient animals were not significantly different from those of control rats. Histological changes suggesting increased gonadotropins in the cellular contents of the pituitary of retinol-deficient rats are probably a secondary effect of the deficiency.