Influence of strogens on the Prostate Gland

Abstract

RECENT investigation¹ suggests that the benign enlargement of the prostate which occurs spontaneously both in elderly men and aged dogs is a consequence of ” strogenic stimulation. No evidence has, however, been found hitherto which demonstrates the identity of the histological changes throughout the naturally and experimentally enlarged prostates, and only such evidence can provide the conclusive step in the substantiation of the hypothesis. It is therefore important to record the fact that a specimen of a spontaneously enlarged prostate in a dog, which has recently become available for study, presents a histological picture identical with that provided by the prostates of dogs experimentally treated with relatively large doses of ” strone². The characteristic epithelial changes of the experimental prostate, which are not seen in the usual spontaneous enlargement, are reproduced in detail in this specimen, and it may be assumed that their usual absence is due to a lesser degree of ” strogenic stimulation than was the case in the animal under consideration.