Effect of Adrenal Cortical Steroids upon the Formation of Carbohydrate by Rat Liver Slices

Abstract

SECKEL¹ showed that addition of eschatine (adrenal cortical extract) to rat liver slices incubated aerobically in phosphate–Ringer solution caused inhibition of glycogenolysis. This was confirmed by Chiu and Needham², who found, further, that this inhibition is absent if incubation takes place in an atmosphere of nitrogen. They therefore suggested that the effect of the hormone is on glycogen synthesis, the degree of glycogenolysis observed being the resultant of simultaneous breakdown and synthesis. Deane et al.³ have, indeed, shown histologically that, under similar conditions to ours, glycogen disappearance may occur in one part of a liver slice while formation is occurring in another part. When the effect of the hormone was tested under conditions favourable to synthesis of glycogen, that is, in the presence of substrates such as pyruvate, lactate, glutamate, an increased synthesis was observed over that in the control without hormone.