Abstract
The existence of a separate but so-farunidentified pituitary cortical androgen-stimulating hormone that acts in concert with adrenocorti cotrophic hormone (ACTH) to stimulate adrenal androgen production (the "adrenarche") from mid-childhood onwards is still strongly argued. It is suggested here that the postulated hormone does not exist and that the adrenarche, which parallels the development of the inner zone, the zona reticularis, is best explained by a morphological and functional change in the inner cells that is induced locally by high levels of cortisol. Downstream "pollution" and slow flush-out of reticularis blood vessels after each pulse of ACTH would expose the inner-zone cells to the highest cortisol levels for the longest time.
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