Strange-male-induced pregnancy disruption in mice: potentiation by administration of 17 beta-estradiol to castrated males.

ABSTRACT

Previous evidence suggests that androgen activity is necessary for strange males to disrupt early pregnancy in mice. Inseminated females were housed below castrated males, separated by a wire-mesh grid. Castrated males did not disrupt pregnancy, whereas those given daily injections of 27 or 81 micrograms of 17 beta-estradiol did so. In conjunction with previous evidence, these data suggest a similarity between the hormones involved in the capacity of males to disrupt pregnancy and the hormones directly implicated in the females' vulnerability to pregnancy disruption.