EFFECT OF EARLY HYPOPHYSECTOMY ON HYPOTHALAMIC OBESITY¹

Abstract

THE HYPOTHALAMIC LESIONS which produce obesity in the rat have already been described in considerable detail by Hetherington and Ranson (I, 2). At the same time, although the question of finer cytological changes in the hypophysis was left open, the lack in most of the animals of any gross histological damage to the gland was noted. This observation did not eliminate the possibility that the hypoph-ysis might play some mediating rÔle between the hypothalamus and fat metabolism, and it was considered possible that the presence of the hypophysis, or at least of a portion of the anterior lobe might even be essential for the appearance of adiposity after the placing of hypothalamic lesions. To be sure, in a few of the earlier workers1 experiments some evidence was to be found that this hypothetical limitation might not be the case.