Effect of Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide on Adrenal Cortical Hyperplasia and Associated Changes Due to Stress.

Abstract

Albino rats were submitted for 38 hrs. to various types of stress, under high and normal CO2 tensions obtained by means of a decompression chamber. The results disprove the possibility that an alkaline shift of the acid-base balance is the necessary prerequisite for the development of the alarm-reaction, as the response of the organs (adrenals, spleen, thymus and lymph nodes) was of the same order in animals submitted to high (15%) and normal CO2 tensions. The adrenal cortical hyperplasia as well as lymphatic tissue involution of the animals exposed, without other change in their environment, to a high CO2 atmospheric tension, imply that this factor is in itself an alarming stimulus.