VIII.—Action of Sex Hormones on the Adrenal Cortex of the Golden Hamster

Abstract

According to Grollman (1936), there is no evidence for an intimate relation between the gonads and the adrenal proper, i.e. the cortex apart from the “fœtal zone” (Grollman, 1942). Recent papers, however (Bourne and Zuckerman, 1940 a, 1940 b; Schilling and Laqueur, 1941; Selye and Albert, 1942; Selye, Rowley, and Hall, 1943; Sarason, 1943, and others), confirm the opposite view (Kolmer, 1912; Korenchevsky, Dennison, and Simpson, 1935). The results, especially those concerning the action of gonadal substances on the adrenal cortex, vary as between different authors and according to the species of experimental animal used. Grollman (1936), for example, states that the cortex is not influenced by œstrogen. Allen and Bern (1942), however, and Golla and Reiss (1942) report a change in the cortex associated with an increase of adrenal weight. The former authors found an increase in lipoid-containing vacuoles in guinea-pigs treated with stilbœstrol; the latter, on the other hand, observed a lipoid decrease in rats treated with œstrone. Comparison of these results with others which they obtained with hypophysectomized rats even led Golla and Reiss to postulate the existence of two corticotrophic principles in the hypophysis: one controlling the distribution of lipoid in the cortex and the other the adrenal weight.