An Electron Microscopic Correlation of Structure with Function in the Isolated Perfused Cow Adrenal, Preliminary Observations

Abstract

Cow adrenal glands were obtained at a slaughter house and perfused with warm, oxygenated, citrated beef blood. The perfusate was analyzed to quantitate corticosteroid synthesis. The same glands were biopsied at various stages and examined with the electron microscope. At the slaughter house, degenerative changes had occurred in the nuclei and mitochondria of the adrenal cells, and in the sinusoidal endothelium. These structures regained their normal morphology after the gland was perfused with blood.