Steroid Fractions from Incubated Normal and Regenerated Adrenal Glands of Male and Female Rats

Abstract

Regenerating adrenal glands from bilaterally enucleated female rats maintained for 1 wk postoperatively on NaCl showed the following properties 19–20 days after enucleation: The production, during 4 hr of incubation, of steroid fractions ascribed to the zona glomerulosa was greatly impaired. The ACTH-stimulated output of 18-hydroxy- 11-deoxycorticosterone, corticosterone and material less polar than corticosterone equaled or exceeded that of the larger normal glands, and the response to ACTH during the 4 hr was far better maintained than in the normal glands. In the males this response was also more sustained, but much below normal during the first 2 hr of incubation, and below that of the enucleated females. The fractions ascribed to the zona glomerulosa were less affected by enucleation in the males than in the females. The implications of these findings with regard to the syndrome of adrenal regeneration hypertension are discussed. (Endocrinology76: 819, 1965)