THE EFFECT OF ASPIRIN UPON THE GLYCOSURIA OF PARTIALLY DEPANCREATIZED RATS IN THE PRESENCE AND ABSENCE OF THE ADRENAL GLANDS

Abstract

SALICYLATES and related compounds are capable of activating the adrenal cortices via the anterior pituitary (Cronheim, King and Hyder, 1952). Hailman (1952) has summarized the evidence that the therapeutic and biologic effects of these compounds are mediated by the increased secretory activity of the adrenal cortices. We have considered the possibility that aspirin can cause a state of hypercorticalism in the laboratory rat. If this were true, it would be expected that aspirin would exacerbate the diabetes of the partially depancreatized rat since corticotropin and the 11-oxygenated steroids of the adrenal cortex are diabetogenic (Ingle, 1948). On the contrary, large doses of aspirin suppress the glycosuria and hyperglycemia of diabetic patients and animals (see Gross and Greenberg, 1948, for review). In the present study it is shown that large doses of aspirin ameliorate the diabetes of partially depancreatized rats in both the presence and absence of the adrenal glands.