WEIGHT CHANGES IN THE CORTEX AND THE MEDULLA OF THE ADRENAL GLAND OF THE DOG IN ACUTE VITAMIN-B1 DEFICIENCY

Abstract

The wts. of the cortex and the medulla of the adrenal glands of 7 young mature dogs in which acute symptoms of vit.-B1 deficiency were produced were compared with the wts. of the cortex and medulla from the adrenals of 33 normal dogs within the same age and wt. range. The glands were dissected by blunt dissection and their wet wts. compared. Loss of moisture was prevented by use of a moist chamber and a weighing bottle. All data were subjected to statistical analysis. The adrenal cortex undergoes both a relative and an absolute hypertrophy in acute vit.-B1 deficiency, whereas the medulla tends to atrophy. The ratio of the wt. of cortex to medulla was 6 to 1 in the normal dogs and 10.88 to 1 in the vit.-B1 deficient dogs.