Abstract
No proof has as yet been presented that free transplants of the suprarenal gland function. Our experiments, with the view of obtaining evidence of function, were carried out on both the rat and the guinea pig. We realize the difficulties of interpreting results in favor of function in the rat, particularly if the clinical condition of the animal is taken as an index, because of the frequent occurrence of accessory suprarenal tissue. For crucial evidence of functioning free transplants we used the guinea pig because continued survival of this species after complete bilateral suprarenal ablation has never been reported. The best results are Rogoff's, 1 who, in a series of 17 animals with an interval of 2 to 3 weeks between the removal of the right and left glands, reports that 1 pig lived 28 days, while 14 of the 17 died during the first 8 days.
PROCEDURE.
In the rat both glands were removed in one sitting and placed in sterile physiological saline at about 39° C. Each gland was cut in half and the four parts were immediately transplanted into pockets between the fascia and abdominal muscle, or in the abdominal muscle. In 3 or 4 weeks the transplants regenerate as highly vascularized masses of cortical tissue, with the three cortical layers. Medullary tissue does not regenerate. Transplants in rats sometimes attain the size of suprarenal glands of adult animals.
In the guinea pig difficulties are encountered in transplantation because the muscle of this animal is highly sensitive to epinephrin, as described by Elliott and Tuckett. 2 Small amounts of this drug when introduced with the transplant may cause marked swelling, and this may he followed by sero-sanguinous oedetna, necrosis, sloughing, and infection of the abdominal wall, so that the transplants are destroyed.
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