THE PITUITARY BODY 



fusing factor.^ Davidson (1937) produced a marked hyper- 

 trophy of the adrenal glands in hypophysectomized rats by 

 injecting anterior pituitary extract. He concluded that the 

 cortical enlargement was due to cellular hypertrophy, not 

 hyperplasia. The histological appearance of the cortical 

 lipoids has received the special attention of Reiss and others 

 (1936) and of Moon (1937). In normal rats there exists a 

 narrow band of tissue between the zone fasciculata and the 

 zona glomerulosa, which histologically appears to contain 

 little or no lipoid. Deposition of lipoids in the cells of this 

 band is one of the earliest signs of a cortical-stimulating effect 

 (Moon). After hypophysectomy the outer part of the zona 

 fasciculata'' rapidly loses its lipoids, which are specifically 

 restored by the injection of pituitary extract containing 

 adrenal cortical stimulating hormone (Reiss and others; 

 Moon). 



The development of the "X-zone" of the mouse adrenal, 

 located as a central fringe of the cortex, appears to depend 

 on sex, inasmuch as it is found in immature or young female 

 mice, whereas it fails to develop in male mice unless castra- 

 tion is performed. Deanesly (1938) suggested that the de- 

 velopment of the X-zone probably depends upon a secretion 

 of the anterior pituitary. She found that the castration of 

 mice with hereditary dwarfism and with partial pituitary de- 

 ficiency is not followed by the development of an X-zone. 



^ Cutuly (1936) studied quantitatively the morphology of the adrenal glands of 

 rats 30 days after hypophysectomy. At death, the male rats weighed an average of 

 166 gm., the female rats, 139 gm. Atrophy appeared to be due solely to cortical 

 shrinkage and was relatively greater in female rats. His results were as follows (the 

 figures refer to the mean of the calculated weights in milligrams): 



Part 



Sex 



Normal rats 



Operated controls 



Hypophysectomized rats . 



* Differences in weight not statistically significant. 



3 Moon's Fig. 3 indicates that this does not represent a widening of the lipoid- 

 free band of normal animals. 



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