Abstract
Summary and Conclusions
The proposed method of assay consists of incubating cellular suspensions derived from the rabbit thmus with adrenal cortex preparations at 37°C for 24 and 44 hours. The number of viable cells in the incubated and treated suspensions were determined by the method of unstained cell counts. The cytocidal unit was defined as that amount of reagent which killed 50% of the cells as compared to a control, incubated suspension. The cytocidal unit was found to be 0.025 γ for 17-hydroxycorticosterone and 0.1 γ for corticosterone and cortisone.
Small doses of the adrenal cortex preparations had a delayed cytocidal effect whereas large doses of adrenal cortex extract and corticosterone had an immediate effect.
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