Role of Neurohumors in the Action of the Adrenal Cortical Steroids: Mobilization of Fat

Abstract

The development of a fatty liver which follows admn. of ethionine to fasted female rats was found to be inhibited by adrenalectomy. Neither cortisone nor epinephrine alone restored the ability of the adrenalectomized rat to develop a fatty liver following ethionine treatment. When cortisone and epinephrine were administered together, however, an amt. of fat appeared in the liver comparable to that observed in the normal. These observations are discussed in relation to other work in this field and it is postulated that the well-established inability of adrenalectomized animals to mobilize fat represents an altered sensitivity to the action of the neurohumor, epinephrine.