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Cytogenetic and endocrine studies in a 45,X female subject with spontaneous sexual development.

Cytogenetic and endocrine evaluation of a postpubertal 45,X female subject with Turner's stigmas and spontaneous sexual development was performed. A 45,X chromosomal complement was found in the peripheral blood lymphocytes, bone marrow, and fibroblasts derived from skin and ovaries. Menarche, pubarche, and thelarche occurred at age 12; at age 16 she developed menstrual irregularities, with endometrial bleeding occurring every 60 to 90 days. The ovaries were normal in size, and histologic examination revealed a marked paucity of primordial follicles, increased collagenization, and absence of corpora albicans. Anovulatory cycles with moderately elevated levels of luteinizing hormone (LH) and low follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) levels were observed. LH-releasing hormone pituitary stimulation induced a normal LH release with a very slight FSH increase. Administration of clomiphene citrate successfully induced a normal-length ovulatory cycle. Similarities in the hormonal situation of this patient and that seen in the Stein-Leventhal syndrome are pointed out.

Adolescent

Aggregation during sexual development in Dictyostelium discoideum.

A microcinematographic analysis of the behaviour and movements of cells and cell masses in mated cultures (NC4 X VI2) of Dictyostelium discoideum indicates that a chemotactic process directs cell aggregation during macrocyst development. Zygote giant cells form before aggregation begins and act as the aggregation centres. Young multicellular macrocyst stages are sources of cyclic AMP, and amoebae from macrocyst cultures orient chemotactically to cyclic AMP. The data, coupled with other characteristics such as pulsatile streaming, suggest that the aggregation process leading to macrycyst development is the same as that occurring during fruit construction. Other aspects of sexual development are also discussed. Based upon these data, we propose a model for the sequence of events leading to macrocyst development in D. discoideum.

Chemotaxis

Physical characteristics and factors related to sexual development and behaviour and the risk for prostatic cancer.

A case-control study of prostatic cancer was carried out to examine the association between selected physical characteristics and factors related to sexual development and behaviour and the risk for this disease. In consideration of an endocrinologic mechanism for these putative risk factors, the association between selected factors and serum hormone level in a comparison group, free of prostate cancer, was also examined. One-hundred cases and 113 controls were included for study. An elevated risk for prostatic cancer was found for those currently married (odds ratio (OR) = 4.0), those who had been married once (OR = 2.8), and those who were currently practising a religion (OR = 2.0). Compared to subjects with one child, those with more than one child and those with no children were more common among cases than controls. Prostatic cancer risk was associated with large body size and, in particular, with greater weight (p < 0.01). Early age at attainment of adult height was also associated with prostatic cancer risk (p < 0.01). Only moderate associations were found between increased frequency of sexual intercourse and prostatic cancer risk. The levels of testosterone (T), dihydrotestosterone, salivary testosterone and T/SHBG (sex hormone binding globulin) did not vary with age. Older men had higher oestradiol levels. Further, little association between hormone levels and risk factors was found, except for married subjects having increased serum androgens (p < 0.05) and heavy subjects having decreased serum androgens (not significant).

Age Factors

Attitudes, opinions, and sexual development of 205 homosexual women.

Two hundred and five homosexual women, aged 15 to 50, were surveyed as to their attitudes and experiences in the areas of education, religion, family experiences, marriage, friendship, personal happiness, sexual development and satisfaction, psychological adjustment, and occupational status. The investigation discovered a high rate of only-child status among lesbian women, a tendency toward ambivalence of opinion on many issues, and a general lack of insight into self and others. Comparisons with other research on female homosexuality were made.

Adaptation, Psychological

Effects of neonatal exposure to the antiprogestin mifepristone, RU 486, on the sexual development of the rat.

RU 38486 (RU 486, mifepristone) is a potent progesterone receptor antagonist that has been used in humans in the pharmacologic induction of abortion. The effects of exposure to RU 486 during the neonatal period of the rat has not been previously reported. We examined the consequences of such exposure in the context of sexual development. Long-Evans rat pups were subcutaneously injected with either 100 micrograms RU 486, 300 micrograms RU 486, 500 micrograms progesterone (P), or 50 micrograms testosterone propionate (TP) in 0.05 ml sesame oil, or oil vehicle alone within 8 hours of birth, and 24 and 48 hours later. Treatment with either dose of RU 486 significantly advanced the onset of vaginal opening in females and attenuated defeminization of the lordosis response measured in males castrated as adults. As expected, TP-treated subjects were masculinized and defeminized, with females displaying fused vaginas and neither males nor females demonstrating lordosis behavior. Treatment with P caused no significant alterations in either the timing of vaginal opening or sexual behavior. These results indicate that RU 486 has clear developmental effects in the rat. Since this may well be a result of progesterone receptor blockade, further research is needed to clarify the processes involved.

Animals

Altered sexual development in male rats after oestrogen administration during the neonatal period.

Male rats given 250 mug oestradiol benzoate by subcutaneous injection on Day 4 of postnatal life showed a marked delay in the onset of the pubertal increase in the weight of the testes and seminal vesicles and in spermatogenesis but not a complete failure of sexual development. The increase in plasma testosterone concentration at puberty was also delayed in oestrogen-treated males but the eventual increase in seminal vesicle weight was closely related in time to the delayed increase in plasma testosterone concentration. Both plasma LH and FSH concentrations were reduced for about 10 days after oestrogen administration as compared to control values. After 22 days of age, plasma LH concentration did not differ significantly from the control values. The plasma FSH concentration of the oestrogen-treated males showed a delayed rise to values equal to or higher than those of controls of the same age. The delayed rise in plasma FSH concentration in the oestrogen treated males preceded the delayed rise in plasma testosterone in these animals. The decrease in plasma FSH concentration from the high prepubertal values to the lower values in adults occurred at different ages in the control and in oestrogen-treated rats but in both groups the decrease occurred as plasma testosterone levels were increasing and the first wave of spermatogenesis was reaching completion. The increase in plasma FSH concentration after castration was reduced in oestrogen-treated males during the period throughout which FSH levels in the intact animals were subnormal but the levels in oestrogen-treated males castrated after the delayed rise in FSH had occurred did not differ from control values. It is suggested that the delayed sexual maturation of male rats treated with high doses of oestrogen in the neonatal period is related principally to abnormalities in the secretion of FSH.

Animals

The tubB alpha-tubulin gene is essential for sexual development in Aspergillus nidulans.

The filamentous fungus Aspergillus nidulans has two genes encoding alpha-tubulin, tubA and tubB. Mutational analysis of tubA has demonstrated that the tubA gene is essential for mitosis and nuclear migration. In this study we have deleted the tubB gene by replacing it with a selectable marker and have named this new allele tubB delta. The results demonstrate that the tubB gene is not required for vegetative growth or asexual reproduction, nor is it required for the initiation or early stages of sexual differentiation. Deletion of tubB, however, completely prevents ascosporogenesis, because tubB delta strains produce no sexual spores when self-crossed. These strains produce viable ascospores when outcrossed to tubB+ strains, indicating that the tubB delta mutation is recessive. We have studied the cytology of sexual development in wild-type strains and in the tubB mutant and have observed that tubB delta. strains develop normally to the stage of ascus formation. However, only a single nuclear mass is observed in the tubB delta ascus, indicating that either the two zygotic haploid nuclei are blocked in karyogamy or that karyogamy occurs but the resulting diploid nucleus is subsequently blocked in meiosis I.

Aspergillus nidulans

[A body of one's own. Sexual development and physical female development in the mother-child relationship].

Prevalent psychoanalytic opinion has it that (sexually) femaleness is marked by a severe deficiency. Accordingly it is widely held that the acknowledgement of female sexuality is primarily a matter for fathers rather than mothers. The author takes a different stance, insisting on the opportunities inherent in the mother-daughter relationship to the extent that it both permits and encourages pleasurable self-examination and acceptance of the body on the part of the growing girl. In the therapeutic connection, the author calls for a form of remedial socialisation to fill the specific lacunae that have developed around female sexuality.

Body Image

Klinefelter's syndrome: sexual development and activity.

Determination of plasma testosterone in 105 patients with Klinefelter's syndrome 16--45 years of age revealed that at each 5-year age interval values of male hormone were lower than in a control group of 25 normal adolescents and 85 fertile and potent men. Analysis of heterosexual development by means of the HTDM Questionnaire in 110 patients with Klinefelter's syndrome age 21--40 years, who were examined mainly for sterility and signs of imperfect somatosexual development, revealed a distinct retardation of sociosexual development compared to that of 325 normozoospermic men from sterile marriages. For eight out of 12 items on the HTDM Questionnaire the differences were statistically significant. Examination by means of the SAM Questionnaire in these two groups revealed that the sexual activity of examinees with Klinefelter's syndrome was significantly weaker than that of fertile and potent men. For 15 out of 18 items on the SAM Questionnaire the differences were statistically significant.

Adolescent

Mutations affecting sexual development in Phycomyces blakesleeanus.

Although zygospore (mature zygote) formation in P. blakeslleeanus occurs in liquid glucoseglutamate medium, morphological observations are made more easily when cultures are grown on 1-mm-thick agar medium. Zygophores (sexually differentiated hyphae) develop prior to physical contact in crosses of (plus) and (minus) wild types. Zygophores interlock upon contact and then undergo six successive morphological changes to become a zygospore. Mutants with abnormal carotene synthesis exhibit aberrant sexual behavior. Some zygospores do form in crosses of carA mutants and wild types. Only paired zygophores form in crosses of wild type(plus) with car-42(minus), a beta-carotene-accumulating mutant. Zygophores form only on (minus) in crosses of wild type(plus) with carB(minus), carR(minus), carAcarR(minus), and carBcarR(minus) mutants, and only on (plus) in crosses of car-43(plus) with wild type(minus), car-42(minus), and carA(minus) mutants. Zygophores do not form in crosses of car-43(plus) with carB(minus), carR(minus), carAcarR(minus), and carBcarR(minus) mutants. These observations demonstrate that each mating type makes a chemical messenger that stimulates zygophore development in the opposite mating type.

Agar

Effects of prenatal pyrethroid insecticide exposure on the sexual development of rats.

The prenatal effects of exposure to the insecticide cyhalothrin on the sexual maturation and sexual behavior of rats were investigated. Female rats were dermally treated with 1 ml/day of 0.02% (w/v) aqueous cyhalothrin solution or its vehicle throughout pregnancy. This insecticide administration delayed the age of testicle descent but did not modify the age of vaginal opening. In adulthood, both male and female rat sexual behaviors were not different from vehicle-treated animals. It was concluded that prenatal exposure to cyhalothrin can induce alterations in the development of certain physical characteristics of rats which are not correlated with functional deficiencies in the animals' later life.

Animals

Men with a distinct testicular hypoplasia: sexual development and activity.

In 101 married men examined for sterility a distinct testicular hypoplasia was found. The long axis of both sexual glands was shorter than 30 mm. Their heterosexual development and activity in sex life were studied by means of HTDM and SAM Questionnaires. A comparison with a group of 325 normozoospermic men of the same age has shown that the heterosexual development was in the pathological group only slightly retarded but that the activity in sex life was distinctly lower in a number of items.

Adult

Adult cryptorchids: Sexual development and activity.

Plasma testosterone in 72 unilateral and 83 bilateral cryptorchids, 11-45 years of age, revealed that, from 13 years on , values of male hormone were lower than in the control group of 69 normal boys and 85 fertile and potent men. Analysis of heterosexual development by means of the HTDM questionnaire in 49 unilateral and 57 bilateral cryptorchids, aged 21-40 years, who were examined for sterility, revealed only slight social developmental retardation compared to 184 normospermic men from sterile marriages. On the other hand, examination of sexual activity by means of the SAM questionnaire in the same three groups revealed that in cryptorchids the first ejaculation is slightly later and that the frequency of nocturnal emissions in pubescence is lower. In adulthood the patients with cryptorchidism exhibit fewer signs of high sexual activity suca as repeated coitus on the same day or a high frequency of sexual intercourse. Also, there is an earlier appearance of prolonged periods of sexual abstinence.

Adolescent

Differential regulation of estrogen-dependent sexual development of rat brain by growth factors.

Intraventricular infusion of antiserum to nerve growth factor (ANGF), but not that to insulin, epidermal growth factor nor normal rabbit serum, resisted estrogen-induced behavioral defeminization in the female rat neonates. A significant number of the ANGF-treated rats showed lordosis as adults despite neonatal estrogen, but positive feedback of estrogen on serum luteinizing hormone was absent. Sexual phenotype in behavioral and gonadotropic functions may be under differential development regulation.

Animals