LACTATION IN ADRENALECTOMIZED RATS

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Abstract
Adrenalectomized rats treated with an adequate life-maintaining dose (1 cc./day) of the earlier Swingle-Pfiffner cortical extracts raised their litters in only 4 out of 10 cases. The growth of the surviving young was sub-normal. The results with adrenalectomized rats given salt treatment were similar to those given extract treatment. A combined treatment of cortical extract plus salt in adrenalectomized rats resulted in a lactation that approached but did not quite reach normal. When the doses of cortical extract were raised to 2 cc. per day (an amt. more than twice that necessary to keep the adrenalectomized mothers alive) all litters lived and lactation was normal as judged by the growth of the young. During lactation the cortical hormone dose must be approximately doubled, presumably to accommodate for the fluid and electrolyte drains of milk secretion. Sub-total adrenalec-tomy did not influence lactation. An experimental lactation was produced in half of a series of totally adrenalectomized rats. When extracts of increased cortical hormone potency were used, their effectiveness in supporting lactation was likewise increased. The sub-normal lactation accompanying life-maintaining doses of cortical extract is not remedied by prolactin. Addition of ant. pituitary extract (Squibb) to a sub-minimal dose of cortical extract inhibited lactation. These expts. offer no evidence in support of the hypothesis that there is a 2d hormone in the adrenal cortex, separate from the life-maintaining hormone, which is essential for lactation.

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