CHAPTER 9 



LYMPHOCYTOKARYORRHECTIC 



EFFECTS OF ADRENOCORTICAL 



STEROIDS 



THOMAS F. DOUGHERTY 



Several papers have been published which review the literature pertaining 

 to the influence of steroid and other hormones on quantitative changes in 

 lymphatic tissue mass, regulation of blood lymphocytes,- and the influence 

 of stress and biochemical relationships of hormonal influence on lymphatic 

 tissue. 8 Very few papers have dealt with the effects of lymphocytokaryor- 

 rhectic hormones on the lymphocytes themselves. The cellular response, of 

 course, accounts for the changes in mass of this tissue and, ultimately, for 

 the regulatory effects of steroid and other hormones on its growth and in- 

 volution, ft has been only within the last few years that we have begun to 

 understand some of the important features of the influence of adrenocortical 

 hormones on the growth and maturation of lymphatic tissue. 



The physiologic importance of these events is, of course, enormous with 

 respect to the formation of serum protein and the functioning of lymphatic 

 tissue as a protein store and a most likely candidate for the source of protein 

 for gluconeogenesis, 4 which is controlled by steroid hormones having es- 

 sentially the same structure as those which influence lymphatic tissue. Sev- 

 eral of these features will be discussed at greater length below. 



MORPHOLOGIC CHANGES IN LYMPHATIC ORGANS 

 FOLLOWING ADRENALECTOMY 



Immediately after adrenalectomy of animals (mice and rats), pycnosis of 

 lymphocytes with phagocytosis of nuclear debris frequently occurs in lymph 

 nodes, the spleen, and other lymphatic organs. This effect has been shown 



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