Abstract
Wide discrepancies exist in the literature as to the life-span of adrenalectomized rats. Most of the work between 1900 and 1930 indicated that approximately 50% of these mammals survived adrenal ablation for a month or indefinitely. This survival was attributed to the presence of accessory cortical tissue. Recently, however, Pencharz, Olmsted and Giragossintz 1 , 2 reported that the rat is no exception to the rule that adrenalectomy is fatal in mammals. Freed, Brownfield and Evans 3 stated definitely that adrenalectomy was uniformly fatal in rats if one-quarter inch of the pedicle was removed along with the gland. Kutz 4 stated that out of 57 animals of his strain operated at 4 weeks age, 56 were dead by the tenth day. While these results were being reported other workers have been reporting a high percentage survival. The present study was undertaken in an attempt to give some explanation to this chaos of evidence.
A series of 156 adrenalectomies were done to investigate the effects of different types of operation in animals of different ages and different strains. Rats from 35 days to 10 months age were used from 5 different colonies. To demonstrate that the animals were really dying of adrenal insufficiency a series from all colonies were revived from their terminal coma with the cortical hormone, kindly supplied by Drs. W. W. Swingle and J. J. Pfiffner. Also to check the effect of surgical trauma a series of control. operations were done. Rigid asepsis was maintained in the operations. A balanced diet containing all necessary food factors was used. No animal was used unless in apparent perfect condition of health.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.