EFFECTS OF BREEDING ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF OVARIAN, ADRENAL, AND UTERINE LESIONS IN DBAXCE AND RECIPROCAL HYBRID MICE1

In dbaxce and reciprocally crossed hybrid mice hyperplasia of the uterus occurs spontaneously in both intact virgin and neonatally ovariectomized females at 6 to 8 months of age and persists throughout life (Christy, Dickie, Atkinson and Woolley, 1951). The uterine lesions include hyperplasia of the endometrial glands, adenomyosis, hyperplasia of the uterine muscle and generalized fibrosis and vascular congestion. These lesions, however, are but one manifestation of a widespread endocrine imbalance involving the anterior lobe of the hypophysis, the adrenal cortex and the ovaries. In the ovariectomized female the uterine hyperplasia develops as the result of hyperestrinism due to aberrant hormone production by the hyperplastic and neoplastic adrenal cortical lesions which appear following gonadectomy. In the intact virgin, on the other hand, the hyperestrinism is mediated through the ovaries (Atkinson and Dickie, 1953). In both the castrate and intact virgin considerable amounts of progesterone and androgen are also produced.