THE RÔLE OF THE ADRENAL CORTEX AND THE ANTERIOR PITUITARY IN DIABETES INSIPIDUS

Abstract

In observations on 33 cases it was observed that a polyuria, but not necessarily a polydipsia, is maintained for 7 wks. or longer in hypophysectomized rats and is terminated only by moribundity. Water intake alone was not an accurate measure of the altered water exchange of hypophysectomized rats. In 8 cases crude anterior-pituitary extract consistently restored d. i. to its maximal post-operative levels in rats. Such results are in harmony with those from other spp. This effect was not clearly related to growth and appetite responses. The influence of the ant. lobe in maintaining a maximal d. i. was not mediated through the adrenal cortex. Adrenotrophic preps. were antidiuretic in long-term hypophysectomized rats (7 cases); they did not prevent subsidence of the high initial diabetes insipidus which follows hypophysectomy (8 cases); and salt-free cortical extract or desoxycortocosterone acetate had no effect on the water exchange in long-term animals (9 cases). The antidiuretic action of andrenotrophic preps., exhibited also in the Burn assay in intact animals, could not be accounted for by their titer of post.-lobe pressor oxytocic substances.