INHIBITION OF DESOXYCORTICOSTERONEINDUCED PATHOLOGIC CHANGES BY ADRENOCORTICOTROPIC HORMONE AND CORTISONE***†

Abstract

DESPITE recent advances in the treatment of the collagen diseases in man, their pathogenesis remains obscure. Pathologic lesions strikingly similar to those found in humans have been produced in animals by a wide variety of technics (1–21). Selye has claimed the production of typical lesions in animals following the administration of desoxycorticosterone acetate (DCA) (1–7), lyophilized anterior pituitary (LAP) (6, 8), compound S of Reichstein (10) and growth hormone (11, 12). He has concluded (7) that the collagen disorders in man result from a maladaptation to stress in which adrenocortical hyperactivity occurs, in response to excessive stimulation by the anterior pituitay. On the other hand, studies in this laboratory (22, 23) indicate that the administration of DCA to the rat induces a relative state of adrenocortical insufficiency by inhibiting the output of pituitary adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) and by antagonizing, at a target-cell level, the action of the ACTH-induced secretion of the adrenal cortex.