Fructose in Rabbit Semen: A Study of Normal Fluctuations, and Changes Evoked by Testosterone and Stilboestrol

It has been demonstrated by Mann [1946] that fructose is a normal constituent of mammalian semen in several species, including the rabbit, and that it represents a substrate for the metabolism of spermatozoa. In the rabbit the presence of fructose has been shown in several accessory organs, namely, in the prostate, the vesicular gland (glandula vesicularis), an organ corresponding to the seminal vesicle of other species, and also in the ampullae vas. def. [Davies & Mann, 1947]. In experiments on rabbits [Mann & Parsons, 1947], and more recently also on rats and bulls [Mann, Lutwak-Mann & Price, 1948; Mann, Davies & Humphrey, 1949], it was shown that fructose disappears from the seminal plasma and from the accessory organs after castration, and that it reappears promptly after implantation or injection of testosterone. On the basis of the strict relationship which exists between seminal fructose and the activity of the testicular hormone,