Malvina Schweizer

Effects of Adrenal and Thyroid Hormones on Water Exchange in Hypophysectomized Rats.

Summary The effects of adrenal cortical and thyroid substances were studied on the water exchange and related phenomena in hypophysectomized rats during periods after the initial high postoperative d. i. had subsided. 1. Desoxycorticosterone acetate in 1 mg daily doses elevated water exchange, but not to levels characteristic of d. i., whereas whole extract of the adrenal cortex was without effect. 2. Thyroid-feeding in doses that restored oxygen consumption at least to normal elevated the water intake slightly but not the urine output. There was an associated rise in urine specific gravity. The diuretic effects of thyroid hormone under other circumstances in the rat must depend upon the presence of an anterior pituitary. 3. Non-toxic doses of thyroxin, although affecting oxygen consumption, had no effect on water exchange. 4. When desoxycorticosterone and the larger doses of thyroid were given in combination, the toxicity of the latter was overcome. Water intake was doubled, but urine volume did not increase proportionately due to the opposing action of the thyroid substance.

Occurrence of Non-Motile Leucocytes

Sabin, Cunningham, Doan and Kindwall 1 observed that when supravital counts were made on blood drawn every 15 minutes there appeared “showers of non-motile cells” at approximately hourly intervals. They interpreted these as being due to degenerating polymorphs which were actually dying in the blood stream. Beard and Beard 2 confirmed the existence of these showers, and were able to increase their magnitude without altering their rhythm by the injection of sodium citrate. More recent workers (Smith and McDowell, 3 Jones, Stephens, Todd, and Lawrence 4 ) have been unable to confirm these observations, and find that the non-motile cells occur at irregular intervals and are probably artefacts. If the non-motile cells are really dying polymorphs, most of them should be old cells, as determined by the criterion of the number of lobes in the nucleus (Cooke and Ponder 5 ), whereas if they are artefacts, we might well expect both young and old cells to be affected, i. e., cells of all the classes of the polynuclear count. I have made a series of counts to determine (a) whether the non-motile cells occur regularly, and (b) whether they are always old cells, i. e., cells of the higher classes of the polynuclear count. For each count 2 preparations were made under separate coverslips but on the same slide, and these were examined by the supravital technique, counts of non-motile cells being made in regions of the preparations which initially showed many motile forms. Table I shows a typical series of results. The preparation designated by (a) was the one counted first.