Morphological and physiological findings of fetal adrenal grafts in rats who underwent bilateral staged adrenalectomy.

Abstract

Earlier studies have shown successful transplantation of fetal grafts into the greater omentum of rats. This report evaluates the effects of fetal adrenal glands in adult rats, who underwent bilateral staged adrenalectomy. At first we carried out a preliminary study to investigate the outcome of bilateral adrenalectomy: There were three groups each consisting of 10 rats. In Group 1 we performed bilateral adrenalectomy, and all rats died postoperatively within 8 hours. In Group 2 the rats underwent sham procedure, and only one rat died. Group 3 was for control and all rats survived. After the preliminary study we constructed a 4th group (Tx group) with 20 rats. We performed a left adrenalectomy and immediately transplanted fetal adrenal glands into the greater omentum (stage 1). All animals survived the operation. After 6 weeks we did a second laparotomy and excised the right adrenal gland (stage 2). All of rats from Group 4 compared to Group 1 did not die postoperatively within 8 hours. 6 rats survived staged bilateral adrenalectomy with fetal grafts. Histologic investigation of fetal grafts revealed well developed cortex containing all three layers, but we could not find any medullary cells. In view of these findings we speculate that the fetal adrenal grafts have functioned in this model.