A Cytochemical Study of the Adrenal Cortex in Hypo- And Hyperthyroidism1

THE ADRENAL cortex enlarges in experimentally hyperthyroid animals and shrinks in animals made hypothyroid by thyroidectomy or by feeding antithyroid drugs such as thiouracil or thiourea (Marine, 1935; Leblond and Hoff, 1944; Baumann and Marine, 1945). It has not been ascertained whether these changes in the adrenal gland are caused by an altered reactivity of the cortex or whether they reflect modified rates of production of pituitary adrenotropin. Baumann and Marine state that the adrenal cortex “exercises an inhibitory control over the thyroid gland” and interpret the involution of the cortex after administration of thiouracil as an “attempt to compensate for loss of the thyroid secretion.” There has been little support for their belief that the connection between these two glands is so direct. To us it seems more reasonable to interject the pituitary gland and its specific hormones into any suspected thyroid-adrenal inter-relationship.