On the Compensatory Hypertrophy of the Suprarenal Gland in Rabbits and the Relation between the Survival Duration after Double Suprarenalectomy and the Accessory Cortical Tissue
1929 Volume 13 Issue 3-4 Pages 203-236
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1929 Volume 13 Issue 3-4 Pages 203-236
(I) With 77 male rabbits the main suprarenal glands were extirpated by a operation of two sittings, separated by from 11 to 340 days, and the fate of animals after loss of both glands was followed during a period of over two and a half years.
A. The removal of one gland was followed by a noticeable compensatory hypertrophy of the remaining main gland in as many as 86 per cent of the total cases. There exists some close relationship between the time elapsing after single suprarenalectomy and the degree of hypertrophy of the remaining gland.
B. One fourth of the doubly suprarenalectomized rabbits survived over one year and one fifth over 500 days.
One seventh died within from 7 to 11 days after the last operation. The rest died between the 14th day and one year after the loss of the both glands.
C. In doubly suprarenalectomized rabbits accessory cortical tissues were demonstrated in 94 per cent of the all cases, and a remarkable hypertrophy could be observed in 72 per cent of the total. Here also a somewhat close relation was shown to exist in general between the duration of survival and the amount of the accessory cortical tissues hypertrophied; the longer the survival, the greater the amount of accessory cortical tissues was found to be.
D. Three rabbits, in which no accessory was formd at autopsy, died on the 7th to the 10th day after the lost of the both suprarenals.
(II) As the control of the compensatory hypertrophy of the suprarenal capsule the writer himself weighed also the glands in 200 normal rabbits (100 male and 100 female) with body weight ranging from 1.07 to 3.99 kilos.
The averages for the male rabbits are 0.138 grm. or 0.081 grm. ±0.022 per kilo of body weight for the right gland and 0.153 grm. or 0.086 grm. ±0.023 per kilo for the left. 0.122 grms. or 0.072 grm. ±0.018 per kilo for the right and 0.133 grm. or 0.078 grm. ±0.018 for the left are the figures for the female. In about eighty per cent of the entire cases the left gland was heavier than the right, the average of the excess being found as about 12 per cent.
