STUDIES ON THE NATURE OF THE PROTEIN CATABOLIC RESPONSE TO ADRENAL CORTICAL EXTRACT¹²

Abstract

It is generally believed that in addition to their other actions, those adrenal cortical steroids which influence protein metabolism do so by increasing the rate of protein catabolism. The coupling of the increase in nitrogen excretion with an accumulation of liver glycogen following treatment with adrenal cortical hormones in the fasted animal has led to the concept that these steroids are concerned with the process of gluconeogenesis from protein (Long, Katzin, and Fry, 1940). These findings, amply substantiated by many different investigators, have directed attention toward various steps in the metabolic cycle between protein and glycogen as possible sites for the locus of action of the adrenal cortex in metabolism. The degradation of protein itself, the deamination of amino acids, the conversion of three carbon precursors to glucose and glycogen, the conversion of glucose to glycogen, and the inhibition of extra hepatic glucose utilization have all been considered in terms of the site of action of the cortical steroids in metabolism (Long 1942).