Abstract
Summary and Conclusions
(1) The weight of the adrenal glands of guinea pigs on graded levels of intake of ascorbic acid varied inversely with daily intake of this vitamin. (2) A progressive decrease in the number of circulating eosinophiles occurred in guinea pigs maintained on a scorbutigenie diet. (3) There was a delay in onset of severe symptoms of scurvy and an increase of the mean survival period in scorbutic animals treated with ACTH. (4) The administration of a large close of ACTH to guinea pigs with severe scurvy was promptly followed by a decline of more than 50% in the level of circulating eosinophiles. (5) These observations are interpreted as indicating that ascorbic acid deficiency functions as a non-specific stress and that this vitamin is not directly involved in mechanisms of elaboration of adrenal cortical hormones with an oxygen atom at the C-ll position.
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