THE EFFECT OF ACUTE AND CHRONIC DESOXYCORTICOSTERONE ACETATE PRETRE’ATMENT ON THE PITUITARY-ADRENAL RESPONSE TO STRESS1

In recent years considerable interest has been evinced in the factors which control the pituitary-adrenal response to stress. The intact rat responds to such stresses as anoxia (Sacerdote, 1938), benzene (Poumeau-Delille, 1941), ether (Bowman and Muntwyler, 1937) and a host of others too numerous to cite, by a prompt reduction in the quantity of adrenal ascorbic acid. The dominant role of the adenohypophysis in this response is indicated by the fact that its ablation renders the adrenal ascorbic acid unresponsive to stress (Sayers, Sayers, Liang and Long, 1945), although not to the injection of adrenocorticotropic hormone (Sayers and Sayers, 1948). The finding that the depletion of adrenal ascorbic acid which normally ensues in response to different types of stress may be prevented or inhibited by pretreatment of the animal with cortical extracts and certain of the cortical steroids, in proportion to the dosage employed, has led to the concept of a “peripheral-humoral”