RESULTS OF ADMINISTRATION OF ANTERIOR PITUITARY ADRENOCORTICOTROPIC HORMONE TO A NORMAL HUMAN SUBJECT*†

Abstract

STUDIES on animals have shown that purified adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) of the anterior lobe of the pituitary body is able to stimulate the adrenal cortex of the intact or hypophysectomized animal to increased function and produce results similar to those that have been produced by administration of crystalline adrenocortical hormones (2, 11, 14, 16, 28, 39, 40, 41, 51, 52). The primary aim of this study was to determine what changes might occur in the excretion of urinary steroids as the result of administration of ACTH to a normal human subject. Observations also were made on many other factors that are known to be influenced by activity of the adrenal cortex. It is well known that most patients with tumors or hyperplasia of the adrenal cortex excrete abnormally large amounts of 17-ketosteroids in the urine (9,15, 36). Under conditions which presumably stimulate the adrenal cortex to increased activity, an increased excretion of material with chemical and physiologic properties similar to those of the 11-oxygenated hormones of the cortex has been observed (6, 50). Relatively large amounts of pregnanediol have been found in the urine in cases in which hyperfunction of the adrenal cortex has been associated with an absence of ovarian function (33). Estrone has been isolated from extracts of the adrenal gland (1) and in a few instances, large amounts of estrogens have been found in the urine in cases of tumor of the adrenal cortex (19, 20, 33). These observations suggested that stimulation of the adrenal cortex with ACTH would result in an increase in the excretion of 17-ketosteroids and cortin-like material and possibly in the excretion of increased amounts of estrogen and pregnanediol. Determinations of the quantitative variations in these urinary steroids were made and, so far as it was possible to do so by isolation procedures, the qualitative variations were studied.