THE DIURNAL VARIATION OF BLOOD LEUCOCYTES IN NORMAL AND ADRENALECTOMIZED MICE12

Abstract

FOR many years conflicting opinions have appeared in the literature concerning cyclic variation of the circulating leucocytes. Recently, a diurnal variation of large magnitude has been well established for the circulating eosinophils in a variety of animals, Halberg and Visscher (1950), Halberg (1953), Halberg, Visscher and Bittner (1953), Visscher and Halberg (1955), Louch, Meyer and Emlen (1953), Panzenhagen and Speirs (1953), and has been reported for the lymphocytes in the human by Elmadjian and Pincus (1946). With the advent of intensive research on the pituitary and adrenal hormones, a marked effect of these hormones on the numbers of circulating leucocytes became evident. Dougherty and White (1943, 1944, 1947) and White and Dougherty (1945) observed an involution of lymphatic tissue and concomitant blood lymphopenia and neutrophilia following administration of these hormones. Pincus (1943) observed a diurnal variation in the urinary excretion of 17-ketosteroids in humans and Laidlaw et al. (1954) found a diurnal variation in urinary 17-hydroxycorticoids. Elmadjian and Pincus (1946), using the lymphopenic response as an indicator of adrenal cortical activity, found a diurnal variation of the blood lymphocytes which correlated with 17-ketosteroid excretion. Halberg, et al. (1953) and Visscher and Halberg (1955) reported that adrenalectomy appeared to abolish the diurnal cycle of the circulating eosinophils in mice.