THE EFFECT OF ADRENAL CORTEX EXTRACT WITH AND WITHOUT EPINEPHRINE UPON THE WORK OF ADRENALLY INSUFFICIENT RATS

Abstract

Epinephrine has the property of temporarily increasing the height of contraction of “fatigued” skeletal muscle. Radwanska (1910) found that the administration of epinephrine to the “fatigued” adrenalectomized animal gives a temporary increase in work output. Although the hormones of the adrenal cortex are of primary importance in restoring the ability of the adrenalectomized animal to work (Hartman, Brownell and Lockwood, 1932), the question of the importance of the adrenal medulla and its hormone epinephrine in the maintenance of vigor and resistance has remained unanswered. Ingle and Lukens (1941) found that the work performance of the adrenal demedullated rat was depressed below that of normal animals during the first few hours of work and that the administration of epinephrine with glucose would temporarily restore to normal the work rate of “fatigued” adrenalectomized rats. One of us (D.J.I., unpublished) has observed that the continuous subcutaneous injection of adrenal cortex extract with epinephri...