Regeneration of the ovary after resection has usually been brought about when the opposite organ is extirpated at the time of resection [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8]. This gives rise to the question of whether the reaction of the ovary to injury in these conditions should not be regarded as compensatory hypertrophy rather than regeneration, and what precisely is the response to extirpation of the opposite organ.In order to discover if the ovary is capable of regeneration, i.e., of restoration after part of it is removed, we carried out experiments in which the compensatory reaction was ruled out beforehand. We studied the response to Injury in an ovary which had already undergone compensatory hypertrophy. Moreover, we wanted to find out if the capacity of ovarian ceils for proliferative activity was exhausted after the intensive restorative processes constituting the response to extirpation of the opposite organ.
ExperimentalMethod and ResultsThe objects of study were white rats weighing 100-120 g each. Altogether, we carried out five series of experiments with 10-14 animals in each series.The nature of the experiments and the results of weighing the ovaries are shown in Table 1.From the animals in the first, second, and third series of experiments we extirpated the right ovary (unilateral castration) in order to induce compensatory hypertrophy of the remaining ovary. Six weeks after the operation, the animals of the second series were sacrificed. As was to be expected, the remaining ovary underwent compensatory hypertrophy. Its weight (absolute 57.4 mg and relative 0.33~ more than 1 89 times the weight of the ovary (absolute 37 mg and relative 0.2~ the control animals (fifth series). To demonstrate the regenerative capacity of an ovary whiehhad undergone compensatory hypertrophy, we extirpated half of the hypertrophied ovary in the animals of the first series six weeks after the first operation. The weight of half the hypertrophied ovary (absolute 24.8 mg and relative 0..13~ a little less than the weight of the whole ovary in the control animals.For a comparison of the course of the regenerative processes after resection of an ovary subject to hypertrophy, and an intact ovary, we completely extirpated the right ovary and half of the left from the animals of the fourth series. With this type of operation we had previously observed regeneration of the ovary in mice, rats, and monkeys [1,2,3].Six weeks after the second operation (resection of hypertrophied ovary), and three months from the start of the experiment, all the experimental animals (second, third, and fourth series), and the controls (fifth series), were sacrificed. Regeneration was discovered both in animals of the fourth series and in animals of the first series of experiments. The rate of the regeneration process was found to be roughly the same. The weight of the 76
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