Summary
Adrenal glands of adult female rats are heavier than the glands of corresponding male rats. Postpubertal orchiectomy increases the adrenal weight, an effect restored by testosterone replacement. Under the same conditions ovariectomy of 8 weeks duration does not change the adrenal weight while estradiol replacement enhances the relative adrenal weight.
Karyometric studies have shown that nuclei in the female zona fasciculata cells are larger (app. 18%) than those of the male. Similar but only slight differences (2%) were observed in the zona reticularis. Orchiectomy results in enlargement of cell nuclei within all zones of the adrenal cortex; testosterone replacement has the opposite effect. Ovariectomy of 8 weeks duration slightly enhances the volume of nuclei of the zona glomerulosa cells, has no effect on the nuclei of the zona fasciculata and reduces the volume of nuclei in the zona reticularis. Estradiol replacement reduces the volume of nuclei of the zona glomerulosa cells but increases nuclear volume in the zona fasciculata and in the zona reticularis.
Thus testosterone has an inhibitory effect on the adrenal cortex of the rat while the physiologic effect of estradiol on the morphology of this gland, particularly on the zona fasciculata cells is rather dubious.
The author wishes to thank Mrs. B. Westerska and Miss K. Siejak for excellent technical assistance.
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This research was supported in part by a grant from the Zoological Committee, 2nd Department, Polish Academy of Sciences.
This paper is dedicated to the memory of late Kazimierz Mietkiewski, M.D., Ph.D. whose encouragements and suggestions were most stimulating for my work.
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Malendowicz, L.K. Sex differences in adrenocortical structure and function. Cell Tissue Res. 151, 525–536 (1974). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00222997
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00222997