Effect of adrenalectomy on the arginase levels of liver, mammary gland and kidney in lactating rats studied by the paired feeding technique

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Abstract
Liver, kidney, and mammary-gland arginase levels of rats, adrenalectomized on the 4th day of lactation and autopsied on the 17th day, were significantly lower than those of pair-fed, sham-operated lactating rats. Arginase per g. of moist tissue was reduced most in the mammary gland (to 14%) and least in the kidney (to 50%). The tissue-arginase levels of sham-operated lactating rats pair-fed with adrenalectomized rats were not significantly lower than those of sham-operated rats fed ad lib., save in the case of total arginase in the liver and in the ''abdominal'' mammary glands, the reduction in which was in each case due to a decrease in the size of the gland or glands concerned. It is concluded that the results indicate a closer relationship between adrenal- cortical hormones and the arginase of the mammary gland and kidney than would be the case if the decrease in the enzyme concn. were due primarily to post-operative anorexia. Reasons are advanced for the belief that the diminution of liver arginase following adrenalectomy is also not primarily due to anorexia. A re-evaluation of the relative arginase activity of the mammary gland, in relation to that of other tissues in the intact lactating rat, indicates that liver contains 9 times the amt. in mammary tissue and 28 times the amt. in the kidney. These ratios are much the same in intact lactating rats on a reduced food intake, but in adrenalectomized rats the activity of the mammary gland relative to the liver falls slightly below that of the kidney.