Changes in the Water-Content of Organs and Tissues as a Result of Stimulation by Œstradiol

Abstract

APART from its specific property of stimulating proliferation in the reproductive tract and in certain other tissues of the body, œstrogenic hormone has the more general effect of causing water and salt retention. This was clearly demonstrated in the follicular phase of the menstrual cycle in the pig-tailed monkey¹ and baboons², and in rhesus monkeys which had been injected with œstrogenic hormone^2,3. In these animals, water-retention is most obviously related to swelling of the sexual skin, and it may be associated with a marked shift of body water (as shown, for example, by changes in erythrocyte concentration)^3,4. Study of the renal excretion of electrolytes has shown that water-retention also occurs in male dogs after treatment with œstrogenic substances⁵, while more recently Astwood⁶ has reported that the water-content of the uterus of the rat undergoes a transient rise which reaches its peak six hours after a single injection of Astrogenic hormone, returning to normal about twelve hours after the injection.