SOME OBSERVATIONS ON THE PHYSIOLOGIC ACTIVITY OF Δ4,6-DEHYDROCORTISONE (DIENE)

Abstract

DURING the partial synthesis of cortisone acetate a small amount of Δ^4,6-dehydrocortisone acetate is formed (Mattox and Kendall). This derivative is a diene and in this paper will be designated “diene.” It became desirable to determine the physiologic activity of the diene, and to this end experiments were planned which would show the comparable effects of cortisone and the diene on normal and adrenalectomized rats. This paper contains the results of some of these experiments. Cortisone acetate, when given to experimental animals, has been shown to exert certain well-defined influences on the distribution of some of the cell categories of the peripheral blood and to induce a partial atrophy of the adrenal gland and of the lymphopoietic organs. Three hundred micrograms given daily to adult CBA mice for twenty-one days induced, in this laboratory, a decrease of 54 per cent in the number of lymphocytes per cubic millimeter of blood,