THE present study is concerned with the problem of whether there is more than one pituitary factor which exerts a direct influence on the adrenal cortex. Pituitary corticotropin, or ACTH, as first isolated, purified, and chemically and biologically characterized by Li and his associates (1) and by Sayers and his co-workers (2) in 1943, has been amply demonstrated to possess three major functions: the maintenance of the weight and the stimulation of growth of the adrenal cortex; the discharge of ascorbic acid and cholesterol from the gland; and the synthesis and secretion of active steroids. Evidence has recently been summarized by Li and his associates (3) regarding quantitative differences in these fundamental characteristics among various types of ACTH preparations, ranging from larger sized protein molecules to polypeptides obtained by partial hydrolysis. Work by Dixon and associates (4) has indicated that certain pituitary fractions may show a marked disparity between the capacity to cause adrenal ascorbic-acid depletion and the ability to repair adrenal size and morphology in hypophysectomized rats.
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Liddle et al. (1954) studied this question.