The production of the adiposogenital syndrome in the rat, with preliminary notes upon the effects of a replacement therapy

The answer to the question whether the genital atrophy, skeletal undergrowth, and excessive adiposity of the adiposogenital syndrome are due to a pituitary deficiency or to an injury of the hypothalamus without pituitary involvement has rested heretofore upon observation made in two closely allied ways, (1) the extent of the injury inflicted as determined at the time of operation, (2) the extent of the injury as determined by autopsy and a study of sections. Both of these methods are open to the objection that the most careful study may fail to reveal the extent of damage done.Another method is available for determining the significance of the pituitary and brain injury in the genesis of this syndrome, namely, that of a replacement therapy. If we have any confidence in the functional specificity of the endocrine glands, it follows that we must admit the significance of a pituitary impairment as the causative factor if the adiposogenital syndrome or any of its components can be corrected by pituitary admin...