Abstract
The object of this study was to determine the extent to which the adrenal cortices of the fetal rat are responsive to a condition of adrenal insufficiency produced in the mother.
Albino rats of the Wistar strain, each weighing 180 to 190 g at the time of mating, were used. Of 10 animals, the adrenal glands were removed on the seventh day of pregnancy and of 15 animals, on the fourteenth day of pregnancy. Eighteen additional pregnant animals were not subjected to operation. On the twenty-first day of pregnancy the young were taken for weighing either immediately after delivery or by cesarean operation. The adrenal glands of the newborn were removed and carefully cleaned of fat and connective tissue. The glands from the animals of the same sex from each litter were combined and weighed in a closed bottle by one of us who was unaware of the identity of the mother. The procedure used in obtaining glands for weighing was carefully standardized and we believe that it was sufficiently accurate to insure reliability of the differences observed. The data are summarized in Table I.
The average values for the weights of adrenal glands of the newborn from adrenalectomized mothers were significantly above normal in each group represented. All of the adrenal weights for the experimental animals were above the means for normals. Histologic comparison of the glands indicated that the differences in size were owing to an increase in the amount of cortical tissue in the glands from the experimental animals.
We have no proof that the glands of the fetus protected the mother against adrenal insufficiency. Mild symptoms of adrenal insufficiency were common among the pregnant mothers and we have observed, in other unpublished experiments, that a severe state of insufficiency is easily produced in these animals by mild stress, such as chilling, a 24-hour fast, and so on.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.