EXPERIMENTAL STUDIES ON THE RELATIONS BETWEEN ADRENAL CORTEX, PLASMA LIPIDS, AND ATHEROSCLEROSIS1

Abstract

OVER 100 years ago Virchow described the development of endarteritis deformans, a term used by him for atherosclerosis, and observed the alteration of the tissue ground substance in the evolution of this condition. Research in this field has been greatly influenced by the observation that feeding cholesterol resulted in the production of severe atherosclerosis in the rabbit (Anitschkow, 1913), as well as in other animal species (Davidson, 1951). Recently there has been a revival of interest in the role of the ground substance in atherogenesis (Klemperer, 1953). Our previous work showed that prolonged administration of large doses of corticotropin or cortisone produced hypercholesteremia, elevation of other serum lipid fractions and lactescence of serum in man (Adlersberg et al., 1950; 1951). These findings have been confirmed in the rabbit (Kobernick and More, 1950; Adlersberg et al., 1951; Rich, 1951). In studies on the effect of corticotropin,