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AN ORALLY-ACTIVE SEX-MATURATION FRACTION FROM THE ADRENAL GLAND

1938; Oxford University Press; Volume: 22; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1210/endo-22-2-203

1945-7170

Francis M. Pottenger, Daisy G. Simonsen,

Growth Hormone and Insulin-like Growth Factors

Cryptorchism, following the report of Bevan (1) was formerly looked upon in America as a condition which only the surgeon could correct. Shapiro (2) in 1930 showed that the anterior pituitary-like hormone of pregnancy urine, in certain cases of undescended testicles, brought about rapid descent. Engelbach (3) noted that patients with thyroid deficiency and cryptorchism often obtained a descent of the testicles from the administration of thyroid extract. Drake (4) reported a series of boys whose testes responded to the stimulation of puberty. The gonadotropic hormone of the anterior pituitary has been used successfully by Werner (5) and his associates. This report is based on the observation of boys who, with one exception, have come under my care for a condition that is rarely looked upon as a developmental disease, namely allergy, particularly asthma. In studying these children we were early impressed by the frequency of undescended testicles and also the apparent smallness of the testes in others who presented no signs of cryptorchism. These facts coupled with similar observations of the sexual development in girls, as well as other clinical and experimental data, led the authors to suspect that childhood allergy, at least in the severe form, may be associated with a failure of factors which are responsible for maturation. In our series of patients we also found, in about 30 per cent of cases studied, a hypothyroid condition as evidenced by delayed bone growth. We obtained a history of thyroid, or so-called ‘ovarian trouble’ in well over 50 per cent of the mothers of these children.