CYTOMETRIC STUDY OF THE FEMALE SYRIAN-HAMSTER GALLBLADDER EPITHELIUM FOLLOWING SEX STEROID-ADMINISTRATION

This report is a cytometric study of the female Syrian hamster gallbla dder epithelium following 1-, 2-, and 3-month administration of female sex steroids. Nulliparous, multiparous, young, old and pregnant hamst ers were used in this study. A 1 month treatment with estrogen alone s ignificantly increases the nuclear volume of the gallbladder epithelia l cells, while E + P treatment significantly affects the nuclear volum e only after a 2 month treatment. On the other hand, E + P and P treat ments significantly increase the cell volumes as compared to the E-tre ated groups, this effect is most striking following the 1 month period . Prolonged sex steroid treatment (2 and 3 month) does not appear to i nfluence the gallbladder epithelial cell and nuclear volumes as dramat ically as that observed following the 1 month treatment. The nulliparo us, progesterone-treated hamsters appear to have a greater cytoplasmic volume than the multiparous group and this is substantiated by the bu lging apices and the luminal cellular excrescences observed with scann ing and transmission electron microscopy. These observations are simil ar to those reported in ovariectomized hamsters (Gilloteaux et al., 19 92). Further, the gallbladder epithelial cells and nuclei of the older female hamsters demonstrate an accentuated response to a 1 month sex steroid treatment as compared to the younger hamsters for the same tre atment duration. These results enable us to hypothesize that changes i nduced by a short term sex steroid treatment participate in the gallst one nucleation process, while longer duration of the treatments contri bute to progressive enlargement and accumulation of gallbladder calcul i.