THE PREVENTION OF ANEMIA IN HYPOPHYSECTOMIZED ADULT FEMALE RATS WITH COMBINED THYROXINE AND CORTISONE THERAPY1

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Abstract
Adult female Wistar rats were hypophysectomized and given daily subcut. injns. of 0.005 mg. of thyroxine and 1.2 mg. of cortisone (on day 21, cortisone was decreased to 0.6 mg. per day). Blood was studied at 10-day intervals for 60 days. Hypophysectomy induced a decrease in erythrocyte count from 8.82 [plus or minus] 0.59 million cells per cu. mm. before hypophysectomy to 6.55 [plus or minus] 0.64 million cells 60 days later; in hematocrit reading, from 44.5 [plus or minus] 1.8% to 29.8 [plus or minus] 2.4%; and in hemoglobin level, from 16.4 [plus or minus] 0.40 gm. per 100 cc of blood to 11.8 [plus or minus] 0.88 g. In addition, the mean corpuscular volume in these untreated hypophysectomized rats decreased and the mean corpuscular hemoglobin concn. increased. Thyroxine and cortisone injns. in hypophysectomized rats prevented this anemia. On the 60th day, the erythrocyte count in the treated hypophysectomized rats was 9.40 [plus or minus] 0.68 million cells per cu. mm.; the hematocrit reading, 45.3 [plus or minus] 1.9%; and the hemoglobin level, 17.6 [plus or minus] 0.68 gm. per 100 cc of blood. There was no significant decrease in mean corpuscular volume in these animals but the mean corpuscular hemoglobin concn. increased. Although the bone marrows of these hypophysectomized treated rats exhibited an increase in fat and a decreased total cellularity, erythropoiesis was active.