EFFECT OF AGE, SEX, GONADECTOMY, SODIUM CHLORIDE INTAKE, AND TREATMENT WITH CORTISOL ACETATE UPON THE LIFESPAN OF ADRENALECTOMIZED MICE OF AN ALBINO STRAIN

Abstract

SUMMARY The effects of age, sex, gonadectomy, administration of NaCl and treatment with cortisol acetate (CA) upon survival after adrenalectomy was investigated in mice of an albino strain. Complete bilateral adrenalectomy was followed by death in all mice except in the group maintained by administration of CA. A period of maintenance with CA was assumed to allow accessory cortical tissue to grow to an extent that, in some mice, it could maintain life when the replacement therapy was withdrawn. The incidence of indefinite survival was greater in mice treated with 50 and 75 μg CA than in those injected with 12·5 and 25 μg daily. Evidence is presented which suggested that operative shock did not contribute significantly to deaths occurring later than 36 hr after adrenalectomy. The lifespan of adrenalectomized mice increased with age at operation, but was not affected by the addition of NaCl to the drinking water. In female mice adrenalectomized prior to puberty the ovaries appeared to promote a slight but significant increase in survival time. This effect was not observed in mice adrenalectomized at 6 or 12 weeks of age. Castration did not affect the lifespan of immature male adrenalectomized mice. The majority of a group of male mice adrenalectomized at 21 days of age were able to survive, and grow in body weight at about half the rate of control-operated mice, as long as treatment with CA in daily doses ranging from 12·5 to 75 μg was continued. The average lifespan appeared to be greater and the number of mice dying during treatment less at higher levels of CA treatment, but these differences were not significant. A loss of body weight occurred in all CA-treated adrenalectomized mice during the terminal stages of adrenal insufficiency. Mice which survived indefinitely gained in body weight during the injection period at a rate similar to that of control-operated mice.