A study of the effects of certain hormones on human cells in culture.

Abortuses from women conceiving within six months of discontinuing oral contraceptives show a striking increase in triploidy. This anomaly could be the result of temporary hormonal imbalance in the woman. Such an imbalance might affect cell division in the ovum. For this reason, we tested nine hormones to see if they influenced cell division in lymphocyte cultures. Using this system, we found no evidence of an increase in polyploid (tetraploid) cells in culture.