A QUANTITATIVE STUDY OF ADRENAL INFLUENCES UPON THE CELLULAR ELEMENTS OF BONE MARROW¹

Abstract

ALTHOUGH the role of the adrenal in regulating peripheral blood cell numbers is still being explored (reviews by Gordon and Charipper, 1947; Daughaday, Williams and Daland, 1948; Aschkenasy, 1952; Grant and Root, 1952; Dougherty and Dougherty, 1953; Gordon 1954; Gordon, 1955; Swingle and Kleinberg, 1955), only scant attention has been paid to its influence upon the blood forming organs. Some investigators have reported stimulation whereas others have noted hypoplasia of the bone marrow following activation of the pituitary-adrenal axis. Thus, adrenalectomy in rats (Gordon, Piliero and Landau, 1951) and mice (Stein and Martin, 1951) results in a decreased erythroid-myeloid cell ratio in marrow. Adrenal cortical extract and cortisone prevent this change in the adrenalectomized rat (Gordon, Piliero and Landau, 1951). Moreover, erythropoietic stimulation has been observed following administration of adrenal cortical extract to intact rats (Hayes and Baker, 1952), after treatment of intact guinea pigs with ACTH (Hudson, Herdan and Yoffey, 1952), cortisone,