Effect of Adrenalectomy and Cortisone on Eruption Rate of Incisors in Young Female Albino Rats.

Abstract

Weekly eruption rates were determined on 24 female Sprague-Dawley rats, bilaterally adrenalectomized at 39 days of age, and on 12 unoperated controls. Twelve of the adrenalectomized and 6 of the normal rats received daily subcutaneous injections of 1.5 mg of cortisone while the noninjected adrenalectomized rats were maintained on 1% saline. At the end of 6 weeks daily injections and saline maintenance were discontinued but observations on eruption rates continued for another 6-week period. Saline-maintained adrenalectomized rats showed a 28% decrease in eruption rate during the first 6 weeks which was highly significant statistically. Cortisone in adrenal- j ectomized rats produced a highly significant increase of 21% in eruption rate as compared with normal controls, whereas cortisone- i treated normals showed an increase of 10%. These observations suggest that the adrenal must be considered in any evaluation of endocrine factors affecting incisor eruption rate.