The effect of suprarenalectomy in the rat on agglutinin formation.

Abstract

Many general facts have been accumulated from chemical and pathological studies which show that the suprarenal glands are in some way involved in the resistance of the organism to infections and intoxications.

Immunological studies in relation to suprarenalectomy are very limited. Gates, in 1918, was unable to demonstrate any noteworthy difference in hemolysin and agglutinin formation in a small series of partially suprarenalectomized guinea pigs and rabbits. Také and Marine have recently reported that rabbits with high grade but sublethal insufficiency showed hemolysin titers averaging more than twice as high as the controls.

The difference in results probably depends largely on the degree of suprarenal insufficiency produced. Removal of one suprarenal will rarely produce appreciable insufficiency, while removal of one gland and a portion of the other leaves behind tissue that possesses a great but variable and uncontrollable capacity to undergo regeneration. The most suitable laboratory animals for the study of suprarenal insufficiency are rabbits and rats in whom both main glands may be removed with a fairly high percentage of survival. Approximately 50 per cent of rabbits and 75-80 per cent of rats will survive this operation.

We wish to report the results of further studies in which rats were used as the test animal and agglutinin formation as the indicator of reaction. The rat compensates rather rapidly following removal of both main glands as has been shown by numerous studies on its susceptibility to a large variety of poisons. It is evident, therefore, that in studies involving suprarenal insufficiency in the rat, one must take into consideration the time factor in addition to removal of both main glands.

In a series of preliminary tests for agglutinin formation we used rats that had survived suprarenalectomy for from 30 to 50 days. Agglutinin titers for these animals showed no noteworthy differences from their strain, age and weight controls.