STUDIES ON SQUALENE POTENTIATION OF THYMIC RESPONSE TO CORTICOTROPIN12

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Abstract
It has been suggested on the basis of previously presented data that exogenous squalene potentiates response of the thjinus to corticotropin (ACTH) in hypophysectomized rats by serving as a readily utilized precursor of glucocorticoids. Other possible explanations have now been studied further. Attempts to demonstrate that the potentiation occurs because squalene acts as a stress-producing agent or directly as a thymolytic agent have given negative results, even in animals with impaired adrenal-pituitary homeostatic pathways, sensitized or conditioned with glucocorticoids. Potentiation has been erratic in occurrence and in degree, but it has now become possible to rationalize these inconsistent results. The data indicate that potentiation can be detected by thymus involution in hypophysectomized rats when the levels of ACTH employed permit the increments of corticoids attributable to a given dose of squalene to represent a measurable proportion of the total glucocorticoids synthesized. When this situation obtains potentiation occurs even in an experimental period as short as twenty-four hours.