THE ACTION OF VARIOUS STEROID HORMONES ON THE OVARY

IN COMPARISON WITH the extensive literature concerning the gonadotropic functions of the pituitary, relatively little has been written about the effects of the steroid hormones on the ovary. Adrenal cortical hormones. Earlier investigators working with a variety of animal species obtained conflicting results concerning the actions of their preparations on the female gonad. Some (1–3) could find no effect on the development of the immature mouse ovary, while others (4–9) obtained positive effects. Similarly in the immature (10–20) and mature rat (18, 19, 2,1–30) the reported findings were contradictory. At the present time, however, knowing that the adrenal cortex contains a host of active steroids it appears probable that the differences in the results of the earlier investigators were due to differences in their crude extracts, or-if they used transplants-to the fact that these produced several hormones. As regards pure cortical preparations there are only a few reports on desoxycorticosterone.