Studies on the relationship of the adrenal cortex to the experimental production of hypoferremia in rats.

Abstract

IN A previous paper (Cartwright, Hamilton, Gubler, Fellows, Ashenbrucker and Wintrobe, to be published) in this series the results of experiments in dogs were reported which were designed to elucidate the mechanism by which hypoferremia is produced. It was found that a variety of agents was capable of producing an acute hypoferremia in dogs. These included bacterial abscesses, sterile turpentine abscesses, histamine, epinephrine, fracture, anaphylactic shock and occasionally the stress of taking blood samples. Adrenal cortical extract and the adrenocorticotrophic hormone (ACTH) were found to produce hypoferremia to a similar degree. In the adrenalectomized dog the hypoferremia caused by mild stress and by ACTH was abolished; the hypoferremic effect of epinephrine was significantly decreased but was not abolished. Intravenously administered saccharated oxide of iron was found to be cleared most rapidly from the plasma of intact dogs given ACTH and most slowly from the plasma of adrenalectomized dogs, the r...