INCREASED FAT FACTOR PRODUCTION AFTER ADRENAL ENUCLEATION*

Abstract

IT IS WELL known that, in certain species of mammals, removal of part of the adrenal cortices leads to hypertrophy of the remainder. Thus, removal of one adrenal in the rat is followed by considerable hypertrophy of the other gland, according to MacKay and MacKay (1926). The effect is most striking if one enucleates both adrenals. After several weeks, regeneration occurs so that the mass of adrenal tissue may equal the original (Ingle and Higgins, 1938). Such observations fail to reveal the functional activity of the remaining tissue during the period of regeneration. In our own laboratory, experiments on the albino mouse have shown that within three weeks after enucleation of both adrenals, there is an increase in fat factor production (as indicated by lipid deposited in the liver after starvation (Brownell, 1946)) which reaches values far above normal. In the present study we have followed the production of this factor for some time after enucleation.