Biology of Reproduction, Vol 25, 851-858, Copyright © 1981 by Society for the Study of Reproduction

Effects of Androgen Treatment of the Neonate on Rat Testis and Sex Accessory Organs

¹ Instituto de Biologiá y Medicina Experimental, Obligado 2490, Buenos Aires 1428, ArgentinaDepartamento de Química Biológica, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Argentina
² Centro de Investigaciones Endocrinológicas, Hospital de Niños, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
³ Instituto de Biologiá y Medicina Experimental, Obligado 2490, Buenos Aires 1428, Argentina
⁴ Centro de investigaciones Médicas, Alberto Einstein, Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Testosterone metabolism, androgen receptors, and the androgen binding protein (ABP) were studied in male albino rats injected with 1 mg of testosterone propionate (TP) on Day 2 of life. The epididymal content of ABP was diminished in immature but not in adult animals treated neonatally with androgen. No changes were detected in the testicular levels of this protein in 27-day-old rats. In adult animals atrophic lesions were seen in 3% of the seminiferous tubules. Androgen treatment of neonates led to a substantial decrease in the 5-reductase activity in homogenates of prostate gland and epididymis from adult rats with a concomitant decline in the 3--hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase activities in both tissues. These animals did not show any change in the number of available or total androgen receptor sites as measured by incubating prostatic cytosol with [³H]R1881. The present findings suggest that the impaired development of the male genital tract could be partially due to a diminished peripheral conversion of testosterone to its active, 5-reduced metabolites.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS We would like to thank Mrs. Dora B. Destéfano and Mrs. Ana Rosa de la Cámara for secretarial assistance. Financial support of this work was provided, in part, by the Argentinian National Research Council and the World Health Organization.