Effects of Saline on the Adrenalectomized Rhesus Monkey

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Abstract
A study has been made of the effects of supplying isotonic saline as a drinking fluid to bilaterally adrenalectomized rhesus monkeys. With only 1 exception, saline was unable to prolong survival in those animals which were given access to it at the time of adrenalectomy or shortly thereafter, their postoperative survival times being similar to those of untreated animals. Saline was likewise without effect in these animals in preventing or minimizing the postoperative derangements in the blood levels of non-protein nitrogen, glucose, inorganic P, Na,K, and chloride. Animals adrenalectomized for several months and maintained by cortisone acetate or desoxycorticosterone acetate postoperatively, lived, on the average, for 69 days after hormonal treatment was stopped and saline treatment begun. For a time these monkeys were maintained by the NaCl supplement, as judged by appetite, body weight and levels of the blood constituents mentioned above (the sole exceptions being abnormal serum Na and K concentrations). Eventually, however, all of these animals died while still on saline. Fasted, adrenalectomized monkeys on saline responded to intravenously administered glucose, as measured by changes in blood glucose levels, in a fashion indicating an accelerated rate of glucose utilization.