The Response of the Thymolymphatic System to Graded Doses of Ethyl Alcohol and its Relationship to Adrenocortical Activity

Abstract

Groups of 8 normal female mice were given 1 subcutaneous injection of either 1000, 3000, 5000 or 7000 mg of ethyl alcohol/kg body weight and sacrificed 48 hr. later. In a second experiment, 4 groups of 8 adrenalectomized mice each received 2 subcutaneous injections of logarithmically graded doses (5, 50, 250 or 500 [mu]g) of 17-hydroxycorticosterone. Thymus, peripheral lymph nodes and adrenal glands were weighed. Significant log-dose response regression relationships were found between the decrease in thymic weights and the increase in the alcohol dose at the levels of 3000 to 7000 mg/kg body weight in intact animals. The weight alterations in the adrenal glands and lymph nodes did not follow this pattern. In hormone-treated mice, there was a significant log-dose response regression relationship between the decrease in thymic and lymph node weight and the increase in dose of hormone between 5 and 250 ug. Comparisons between the thymo-regressive response lines obtained in the intact alcohol-treated and adrenalectomized hormone-treated groups demonstrated that as the alcohol dose increased by increments of 1000 mg/kg, there was a logarithmic increase in the hormone dose required to induce an equivalent thymic involution. This relationship has been expressed by an equation [image]y = 5 [image]ax. The present study conclusively demonstrated that the adrenocortical response (as evidenced by the thymic involution following an alcohol-induced stress) is a function of the quantity of alcohol injected. It is postulated that the response is non-specific and that frequent evocation of the response over a long period of time may eventuate in permanent hypo-adrenocorticism.