THE SECRETION OF THE ADRENAL CORTEX IN THE SHEEP

Abstract

SUMMARY: Adrenal venous blood was collected from six anaesthetized sheep, of which two had been previously hypophysectomized. The blood was extracted and analysed for adrenocortical steroids by paper chromatography. In each case the predominant secretory product found in the extracts was 17α-hydroxycorticosterone. Small amounts of corticosterone and a substance tentatively identified as 11β-hydroxyandrost-4-ene-3,17-dione were also found in all the extracts. Only traces of other reducing steroids or αβ-unsaturated ketosteroids were found: their irregular appearance makes it likely that they were artifacts. It seems unlikely that the secretion of the adrenal cortex in vivo is as complex as the mixture of products released by the perfused beef adrenals in the experiments of Hechter, Zaffaroni, Jacobsen, Levy, Jeanloz, Schenker & Pincus [1951]. The reported actions of cortical steroids, or whole adrenal extracts, when injected into mammals or added to isolated tissues have become so numerous that it has become essential to find out by direct experiment what the adrenal cortex actually secretes into the blood in various conditions. In the absence of direct knowledge of the nature of the cortical secretion, various theories of adrenocortical function have been proposed from time to time [e.g. Sayers, 1950], but recent work has cast considerable doubt upon them. All such theories postulate that the adrenal cortex secretes one or more steroid substances at particular rates in various physiological conditions, and it is necessary to find out whether this is the case or not. This paper describes experiments on six sheep in which adrenal venous blood was collected and analysed by paper chromatography [Bush, 1953] in order to determine the rate and type of secretion in this species.