Abstract
WE have reported elsewhere1 that fertilizable eggs for embryological studies can be obtained satisfactorily from the ubiquitous Indian skipper-frog (Rana cyanophlyctis Schn.). Homoplastic parenteral injections of 4–5 pituitary glands into gravid test animals brought forth viable eggs after 12–15 hr. It was our object to find out if mammalian hormones could also induce these frogs to ovulate, as there is conflicting opinion about the action of gonadotrophins on female frogs. Rugh2 noted in this connexion that: “In general, the Anura will respond to pituitaries from other Amphibia but not from mammalian extracts of the pituitary hormone”. However, Greaser and Gorbman3 quoted authors reporting ovulation in two species of Rana induced by mammalian hormones. Whereas many workers have reported failure to induce Rana pipiens to ovulate with mammalian gonadotrophins, Wright and Hisaw4 appear to have succeeded with mammalian pituitary gonadotrophins. Ovulation has been brought about in frogs using testosterone, progesterone and adrenal cortical hormones5,6. Chang and Witschi7 suggested that cortisone and adrenocorticotrophic hormone play a supporting part in the process of ovulation in R. pipiens and that the ovary should be brought to a threshold by implanting one or two pituitary glands to enable the supporting agent to work. It has been assumed in explaining this action that the process of ovulation is caused by the high follicular œstrogen content, which in turn releases adrenocorticotrophic hormone from the pituitary, the latter activating the adrenal cortex to secrete cortisone which assists in ovulation.
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References
Ramaswami, L. S., and Lakshman, A. B. (in the press).
Rugh, R., “Experimental Embryology” (Burgess, Minneapolis, 1948).
Creaser, C. W., and Gorbman, A., Quart. Rev. Biol., 14, 311 (1939).
Wright, P. A., and Hisaw, F. L., Endocrinol., 39, 247 (1946).
Langan, W. B., Proc. Soc. Exp. Biol. and Med., 47, 59 (1941).
Shapiro, H. A., Chem. and Indust., 55, 1031 (1936).
Chang, C., and Witschi, E., Endocrinol., 61, 514 (1957).
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RAMASWAMI, L., LAKSHMAN, A. Ovulation induced in Frog with Mammalian Hormones. Nature 181, 1210 (1958). https://doi.org/10.1038/1811210a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/1811210a0
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