Responsiveness of Accessory Glands of Adult Mice to Testosterone: Priming with Neonatal Injections

Mice were castrated on the day of their birth, given injections of testosterone propionate or oil on either days 2 and 4 or on days 22 and 24 of life, and then given TP or radiolabeled testosterone as adults. Seminal vesicles of early oil- and early TP-injected animals were similar in weight and in DNA and RNA content before any TP treatment in adulthood. RNA synthesis and rate of growth in response to adult treatment with TP, however, were considerably more rapid in males that had received hormone on days 2 and 4 of life. Other tissues examined were either unaffected by such early hormone treatment (submaxillary and preputial glands) or showed residual weight increases due to the early injection of TP (levator ani muscle). Seminal vesicles, levator ani, and the preputial and submaxillary glands of mice given TP on days 22 and 24 of life all showed residual weight increases 80–90 days later. Relatively pure biochemical priming, unaccompanied by any overt changes in weight or in DNA or RNA content, then, was seen only in the case of seminal vesicles and then only when injections of TP occurred on days 2 and 4 of life. Two additional experiments showed that such primed glands accumulated testosterone-l,2-H3 at the same rate as their oil-injected controls, thus apparently ruling out an enhanced ability to take up steroid as the basis for the observed priming phenomenon. (Endocrinology90: 10, 1972)