STUDIES ON STILBESTROL I. SOME EFFECTS OF CONTINUOUS INJECTIONS OF STILBESTROL IN THE ADULT FEMALE RAT

THE ANNOUNCEMENT BY DODDS (I) and his associates of the high estrogenic II activity of stilbestrol opened up a field of research which promised to be very JL fruitful. In view of the fact that the chemical structure of stilbestrol was dif-ferent from that of any of the natural estrogens it seemed highly desirable and neces-sary to investigate the parallelism of physiological and pharmacological effects of stilbestrol and the natural estrogens. Many reports had appeared on the effects of estrone, estradiol and their esters on some of the other endocrine glands. Accordingly this work was undertaken to compare the effects of stilbestrol directly with those of natural estrogens on the pituitary, thyroid, adrenals, pancreas, ovaries, uterus, vagina, liver and kidneys of animals treated with comparable estrogenic doses of both sub-stances. Since the first work appeared in 1938 the volume of literature on stilbestrol has grown so rapidly that it would be impracticable here to attempt a review. A small monograph would be necessary to analyze the more than 350 papers which have been published. Suffice to say that it has been established that stilbestrol is a synthetic compound having in general the qualitative effects of the natural estrogens.