“…It is unclear if metabolism of ECM is regulated hormonally in neonatal rodents because the neonatal ovary is endocrinologically inactive (Csernus, 1986) and because maternal estrogen present at birth is probably bound to alpha-fetoprotein (Henry and Miller, 1986;Raynaud, 1973). In mature uteri, ECM proteins are regulated directly or indirectly by ovarian hormones (Salvador and Tsai, 1973;Woessner, 1969;Jeffrey and Koob, 1973;Jeffrey et al, 1975;Komm et al, 1987;Kao et al, 1964Kao et al, ,1969Dyer et al, 1980;Mandell and Sodek, 1982;Munakata et al, 1984Munakata et al, ,1985Mochizuki and Tojo, 1978;Ozasa et al, 1981;Sakyo et al, 1986). In this regard estrogens have been shown to increase collagen content in the uterus (Komm et al, 1987;Kao et al, 1964Kao et al, , 1969Dyer et al, 1980), and progesterone regulates uterine collagenase activity IGreas, 1976;Jeffrey et al, 1975).…”