Uterotrophic effects of testosterone and 5alpha-dihydrotestosterone in intact and ovariectomized immature female rats

The relative effectiveness of exogenous testosterone and 5n-dihydrotestosterone (DHT) in causing uterine growth in intact vs ovariectomized immature rats has been investigated to determine the extent to which the uterotrophic responses to these androgens depends upon their aromatization in the ovaries.Ovariectomy depressed the abilityof testosteroneto a much greaterextent than that of DHT to induce uterine growth, especiallyhypertrophy of the uterineluminal epithelial cells. This ability was not furtherdecreased by adrenalectomy. Exogenous estradiol-17(3 administration was aseffectiveinstimulatinguterinegrowth and increased luminal epithelial cellheightin ovariectomized rats treated with DHT as in those treated with testosterone, indicating that the decreased effectiveness of DHT to induce these changes was not the result of greater anti-estrogenic activity of DHT than of testosterone. Ovarian contents of immunoreactive estradiol-1 713increased markedly, and approximately in parallel with increased ovarian contents of immunoreactive testosterone + DHT 6 and 12 h after s.c. injection of testosterone;by 24 h, ovarian contents of both steroids declined approximately to pre-injection levels. In contrast, s.c. injection of DHT was followed by significantly decreased ovarian contents of estradiol-1 7(3 at all 3 time intervals. It is concluded that increased ovarian formation of estradiol-1 7j3 occurs when ovarian contents of testosterone are elevated by administration of high dosages of exogenous testosterone to immature rats, and that this estrogen contributes significantly to the uterine growth and histologic changes which follow testosterone administration. The lack of such changes as a result of 01-IT administration attests to the inability of this androgen to undergo aromatization in vivo; the decreased ovarian content of estradiol-1713 following DHT administration suggests that this steroid, in addition to being ineffectual as an estrogen precursor, may actually play a role in inhibition of ovarian estrogen biosynthesis.