Lipæmia and Calcæmia in the Cock induced by Diethylstilbastrol

Abstract

RATS as well as chickens are transformed into eunuchoid dwarfs by prolonged treatment with cestrogenic hormone¹. During these experiments, a high degree of lipsemia was found in the chickens². The total blood fat can rise to 8,000 mgm. per cent (the normal being 100–200 mgm. per cent). The animals, the blood of which looks like cream, can finally succumb with dyspnÅ ic symptoms to fat thrombosis of the pulmonary blood vessels, in extreme cases. The internal organs, too, show considerable lipsemia. Thus, for example, the fat content of the liver can rise to 24 per cent of the dry matter (normal being 4.56 per cent). Lipæmia is found physiologically in the hen during the egg-laying season (increase from 100 mgm. to 580 mgm. per cent). In the cock, no spontaneous lipæmia occurs. œstrogenic hormone, however, can induce lipæmia in the cock as well, dependent on the dose of hormone administered. œstradiolbenzoate proved to be two and a half tunes as effective as œstrone. One dose of one mgm. œstradiolbenzoate is ineffective; two days' treatment, however, with 2 mgm. daily, certainly results in lipæmia on the third day (increase to 600–800 mgm. per cent). This lipæmia due to œstrogenic hormone is independent of nutrition, occurring likewise in fasting animals. In rodents (rabbits, rats), as well as in man, even prolonged administration of large doses of hormone doea not induce lipæmia. This lipæmia represents the specific effect of œstrogenic hormone, since no effect is obtained either with cholesterol or with sterol-like hormones (we tested progesterone and testosterone).