ANTERIOR PITUITARY HORMONES WHICH FAVOR THE PRODUCTION OF TRAUMATIC UTERINE PLACENTOMATA¹

Abstract

LOEB (1), who discovered the capacity of the endometrium to produce structures II resembling the maternal placenta when traumatized or brought in contact with foreign bodies, showed that the production of these structures was so limited with reference to the phases of the sex cycle as to lead him to the conviction of the essentiality of corpus luteum functionfor this phenomenon. Long and Evans (2) made the first painstaking attempt to transfer Loeb's experience to the rat, a form char acterized by so short an estrous rhythm as to forbid any appreciable length of time for function of the cyclic corpora lutea. Their experience harmonized with the Loeb con ception, for they were unable to produce these growths at any time in the normal short cycle (4 to 6 days) of these rodents. On the other hand, either physiological orarti ficial means of prolonging the life of the corpora lutea (lactation or induction of pseudopregnancy) made it possible to establish typical uterine structures of this sort.