EVIDENCE THAT THE GLOMERULAR ZONE IS STIMULATED BY EPINEPHRINE, CAUSING AN EOSINOPENIA IN HYPOPHYSECTOMIZED RATS

Abstract

THE experiments reported here concern the number of eosinophils in the peripheral blood of normal rats and of rats in which the wellestablished pathway by which the pituitary evokes cortical secretory activity was destroyed by hypophysectomy, adrenalectomy or adrenal enucleation, alone and in several combinations, during considerable periods of time. In addition, the changes in the number of eosinophils at one to four hours following single injections of epinephrine or of ACTH at widely spaced intervals into these same animals are reported.

The experiments were undertaken to explore the possibility that the mammalian adrenal cortex may also be stimulated via pathways which do not involve the hypophysis and the release of ACTH. In hypophysectomized pigeons many stimuli, particularly insulin, induce cytologic changes in cortical cells and effect changes in the blood sugar which are indicative of cortical stimulation (Miller and Riddle, 1941, 1942; Riddle and Opdyke, 1947).