ADRENAL INSUFFICIENCY IN AMERICAN MONKEYS

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Abstract
New-World monkeys[long dash]capuchins, night-monkeys, marmosets[long dash]show tissue and blood chemical changes after adrenal removal which are rather similar to those found in other higher mammalian forms. Serum Na and chlorides are significantly reduced while muscle water tends to be increased. Serum K and urea are raised. Extreme carbohydrate changes, more profound than those which occur in other mammalian types, were observed. In 9 cases serum glucose reductions in adrenal insufficiency averaged over 70%, and in 12 cases liver glycogen values were reduced over 90% (table 1). These figures appear to represent exhaustion of available carbohydrates in these depots. In muscle and cardiac tissues glycogen levels were also significantly reduced. The very low carbohydrate levels in adrenal insufficiency contrast with markedly high liver glycogen values, which may approximate 12%, found in normal monkeys. Hypoglycemic convulsions are a prominent feature of adrenal insufficiency in monkeys. Usually they last over a period of several hrs. and are characterized by very severe spasms, eventually giving place at the last to seizures of an asphyxial type. Evidently the highly important function of the liver as a former and furnisher of glycogen is rapidly abolished in the absence of the cortico-adrenal hormone. Further, there appears no doubt that the first cause of death in adrenal insufficiency in the primates examined is the exhaustion of carbohydrates in blood and hepatic tissues.

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