Sex hormones and susceptibility of the rat to paracoccidioidomycosis.

The development of intraperitoneal paracoccidioidomycosis was studied in groups of female and male rats: a) Under normal conditions (intacts), b) After castration and c) After castration but submitted to a treatment with, respectively, testosterone and estradiol. The criterion of susceptibility to infection was based on: 1) Spontaneous mortality of the animals and 2) Number of metastatic pulmonary lesions. The results showed that: the unique deaths and the more severe pulmonary lesions were found among the intact females, representing the animals most susceptible to the infection in these experiments; the intact females showed more numerous lesions than the castrated; the intact males had less lesions than the castrated, and than those castrated which were treated with estradiol.