THE EFFECT OF INJECTIONS OF TESTOSTERONE PROPIONATE AND CORTISONE ACETATE ON GLYCOGEN DEPLETION INDUCED BY EPINEPHRINE IN DIFFERENT SKELETAL MUSCLES1

Abstract

It has been shown that under a wide variety of conditions the following hormones increase the deposition of glycogen in the skeletal muscles of the rat; insulin (Bridge, 1938); growth hormone (Illingworth and Russell, 1951); testosterone (Leonard, 1952; Bowman, 1953); adrenal cortical hormones (Long, Katzin and Fry, 1940; Leonard, 1953); and estradiol (Leonard, 1953). Injection of epinephrine, on the other hand, rapidly depletes muscle glycogen which subsequently returns to normal (Cori and Cori, 1928; Strand and Gordon, 1952). Therefore the question arises whether or not the glycogenolytic effects of epinephrine on muscle glycogen will be altered if the animals are pretreated with one of the above glycopexic hormones. In this study, only testosterone and cortisone were employed to elevate the muscle glycogen levels prior to epinephrine treatment. Since there are marked differences in the ability of a number of skeletal muscles to store glycogen under the influence of these steroids (Leonard, 1952, 1953; Bowman, 1953),