PREVENTION OF ADRENAL CORTICAL HYPERTROPHY IN DIABETIC RATS BY THE USE OF INSULIN1

Abstract

In an acute experiment lasting 72 hours adrenal cortical hypertrophy was prevented in diabetic rats by regulating diabetes with insulin. There was no significant difference between the ratio of adrenal weights to 100 g initial animal weight of the insulin treated animals and the normal animals while the difference between these 2 groups and the untreated diabetic rats was statistically significant. Only adrenals of untreated diabetic rats showed depletion of lipids and cholesterol, indicating marked adrenal cortical activity. When the experiment was prolonged to 3 weeks, results were inconclusive. Lipid and cholesterol were slightly increased in untreated diabetic rats whereas insulin treated animals had adrenals which were almost indistinguishable from the control rats. There was no difference in the ratio of the adrenal weights to 100 g of initial body weight in these 3 groups.