BLOOD-SUPPLY OF MAMMALIAN ADRENAL-MEDULLA - A COMPARATIVE-STUDY

  • 1 January 1976
    • journal article
    • research article
    • Vol. 122  (DEC) , 539-551
Abstract
The blood supply to the adrenal gland in rat, cat, mouse, hamster, guinea pig, rabbit and bovines was demonstrated using anesthetized animals or in recently excised tissue blocks (bovines). The glands were fixed initially in gluteraldehyde and subsequently in potassium dichromate to reveal adrenaline-storing and noradrenaline-storing cells. Medullary arteries or arterioles pass through the cortex without branching to open into a medullary capillary plexus which is common to all chromaffin cells and there is no selective supply of either adrenaline- or noradrenaline-storing cells. Venous blood from the cortex passes through venous sinuses to the central vein adjacent to both adrenaline- and noradrenaline-storing cell groups; the medullary capillaries open into these at various points throughout the medulla. The number of medullary arteries in the various species is determined and shown to be related to the volume of the adrenal medulla. There is no evidence of a selective blood supply to adrenaline- or noradrenaline-storing cells in the normal (non-stimulated) mammal.