Abstract
REMOVAL of the adrenal glands results in a rise in the level of adrenocorticotrophic hormone in the blood of the rat. Cox and Hodges1 reported that this increase did not occur until two weeks after adrenalectomy and that, after three to five weeks, there existed a remarkably high concentration of circulating hormone. These results were not inconsistent with the findings of Fortier2, who showed that adrenalectomy caused a marked increase in the pituitary content of adrenocorticotrophic hormone after a similar time-lapse. It appears that there is an interval of at least two weeks before the rat pituitary gland adapts itself to secrete and maintain this enormously increased output of adrenocorticotrophic hormone in response to the absence of circulating corticoids. Therefore, it was of interest to compare the response to stress in adrenalectomized rats with low blood levels of corticotrophin with that in adrenalectomized animals with high blood levels of the hormone.
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References
Cox, G. S., and Hodges, J. R., Nature, 181, 420 (1958).
Fortier, C., Abstr. of the 39th Endocrine Soc. Meetings, 97 (1957).
Cox, G. S., Hodges, J. R., and Vernikos, Joan, J. Endocrinol., 17, 177 (1958).
Gemzell, C. A., and Heijkenskjöld, F., Acta Endocrinologica, 24, 249 (1957).
Sydnor, K. L., and Sayers, G., Endocrinol., 55, 621 (1954).
Kitay, J. I., Holub, D. A., and Jailer, J. W., Fed. Proc., 17, 87 (1958).
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HODGES, J., VERNIKOS, J. Influence of Circulating Adrenocorticotrophin on the Pituitary Adrenocorticotrophic Response to Stress in the Adrenalectomized Rat. Nature 182, 725 (1958). https://doi.org/10.1038/182725a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/182725a0
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