The study of a bovine freemartin and its male co-twin has shown that the sex-reversed gonads of the female are secreting testosterone. Therefore, we suggest that the masculinisation of the freemartin’s reproductive tract may be due to sex hormones secreted by its own gonads, rather than by those from its male co-twin. On the evidence at present available, we favour the view that the female gonad is sex-reversed by a humoral inductor substance coming from the male co-twin that causes retention of the medullary sex cords. A study of the male co-twin suggests that its gonads may also be abnormal in that they secrete reduced amounts of androgen. Both twins showed extensive 60, XX/60, XY chimaerism, with a metacentric marker chromosome associated with the XY cell line only. This was derived from the dam. The proportion of XY cells varied markedly between tissues in both the twins. We were unable to find any germ cells in the female gonad, and, with the exception of one possible female pachytene, all the germ cells examined in the male’s testes were XY.

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© 1969 S. Karger AG, Basel
1969
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