The results of the experiments which were carried out for searching the changes of the amounts of cholesterol in the reproductive endocrine glands of Wistar strain male rats from birth to sexual maturity are summerized as follows;
1 The amount of testes cholesterol increases gradually from the time of birth and shows the maximum value just before puberty (six weeks old), but the remarkable increase begins at the age of about four weeks. Then a sudden decrease occurs at puberty. These remarkable increase and decrease are due to testes ester cholesterol. The.decrease continues to about thirtieth day after puberty, then nearly constant va-lues are obtained.
2 Both total and ester cholesterol amount in seminal vesicle and prostate glands increase gradually from the time of birth and reach the nearly constant value at about fiftieth day after puberty. The amount of free cholesterol seems to increase after puberty.
3 The concentrations of total and ester cholesterol in suprarenal body continue to reduce gradually from the time of birth and reach the nearly constant value on about thirtieth day after puberty, but in this course the reduction of ester cholesterol just after puberty is remarkable.
4 The concentration of cholesterol in Iivsr reduces from the time of birth with the growth of rats, and keeps constant level after puberty.
5 The remarkable rise of plasma cholesterol is found at the age of four weeks, puberty at about nine weeks.
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