Effects of anesthesia,surgical manipulation and dehydration on the nucleic acid and protein content of the pituitary and hypothalamus of the frog

Summary Various types of stress, chemical or surgical, have a negative influence on the protein and RNA content of the hypothalamo-hypophyseal system ofRana esculenta. A degree of recovery occurs in these tissues 24 h after MS222 anaesthesia and laparatomy. Decapitation is apparently the most suitable method of sacrificing the animals.Work supported by the National Research Council of Italy.     

Orange II induced cytogenetical changes in albino mice

Summary Daily feeding of the common food color Orange II to mice in doses of up to 3.0 g/kg b.wt for 180 days had deleterious effects on somatic and spermatogonial chromosomes. The chromosomal abnormalities induced were breaks, gaps, constrictions, centric fusion, fragments of unknown origin, translocation, deletion, stickiness, ring chromosomes, pyknosis and other bizarre configurations.Grateful acknowledgment is made to Prof. U.S. Srivastava, Zoology Department for providing necessary laboratory facilities.     

The control of the frog (Rana esculenta) thumb pad

Summary Extirpation of the pars distalis of the pituitary or castration in any period of the year cause thumb pad regression. Thumb pad development is regulated by an interaction of both temperature and androgenic hormones.Work done under the C.N.R.-finalized project Biologia della Riproduzione.     

Effect of temperature and light on the production of androgens in the maleRana esculenta

Summary The present data show that experimentally-controlled environmental variables (light and temperature) can alter circulating androgen levels in the male green frog,Rana esculenta, treated in different phases of the testicular cycle.Work done under the C.N.R.-financed project Biologia della Riproduzione     

A study of the enzyme activity in the seminal vesicles of castrated and hormone-replaced castrated mice.

Castration provokes a time-related decrease in weight, protein, beta-glucuronidase and glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase activity of seminal vesicles. A dose-dependent stimulation of these parameters is obtained with 5alpha-DHT. Cryproterone acetate counteracts the stimulatory effects due to androgen. Acid and alkaline phosphatases remain largely unaffected by these treatments.