THE presence of a “spreading factor” in testes of rats, rabbits and guinea pigs was first observed by Duran-Reynals (1928, 1929). Chain and Duthie (1939, 1940) demonstrated that the “spreading factor” is identical with an enzyme isolated from autolysates of Type II pneumococci by Meyer, Dubos and Smith (1937), and designated by the latter authors as hyaluronidase in view of its capacity to depolymerize hyaluronic acid. Subsequently the concentration of hyaluronidase in testes of rats placed under various experimental conditions has been studied by several investigators. Sprunt et al. (1939) noted a decrease of hyaluronidase concentration in rat testes after 45 days of cryptorchidism. Determinations of the enzyme were made by a biological method of assay—the “spreading reaction.” Utilizing a turbidimetric method of assay, Leonard et al. (1946, 1948) reported a decrease of the enzyme content in testes of hypophysectomized animals and in cryptorchid animals.
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Steinberger et al. (1955) studied this question.