EFFECT OF ADRENAL CORTICAL HORMONE THERAPY ON ALTITUDE TOLERANCE1

Abstract

ADRENALECTOMY is known to decrease the ability of animals to withstand the effects of reduced barometric pressure (Evans, 1936; Thorn, Jones, Lewis, Mitchell and Koepf, 1942), and treatment with adequate quantities of adrenal cortical extract has been demonstrated o t be effective in restoring the “altitude” tolerance of adrenalecto-mized animals to normal (Thorn, Jones, Lewis, Mitchell and Koepf, 1942). Although daily repeated short exposures to reduced barometric pressure have been shown to induce hypertrophy of the adrenal (Thorn, Jones, Lewis, Mitchell and Koepf, 1942; Armstrong and Heim, 1938), to date no evidence has been presented which would indicate that the “altitude” tolerance of normal animals can be improved by supplementary adrenal cortical hormone therapy. Earlier experiments (Dorrance, Thorn, Tyler and Katzin, 1942) revealed that treatment of normal animals with synthetic desoxycorticosterone acetate in oil and aqueous adrenal cortical extract (beef) did not improve the work performance of normal animals under conditions of reduced oxygen partial pressure.