Studies in Steroid Metabolism. Xxii. The Adrenal Response to Acth in Young and Old Men 1

Recent data based on isolation and quantitation of metabolites of adrenal hormones indicated that adrenal function was independent of chronologi- cal age (1).It was important, therefore, to study the capacity of older men to respond to adrenal stimulation and to compare the character of this response with that of younger men, since a prime characteristic of the adrenal gland is the capacity for quick and often large scale response.In a previous study based on the adrenal response to intramuscularly administered ACTH, Solomon and Shock (2) concluded that the ability of the adrenal cortex to secrete hormones of the 11, 17- oxygenated type was not grossly impaired in the aged.Pincus (3) was unable to detect a significant difference in adrenal responsiveness to ACTH between healthy young men and old men.The results obtained in this study, in which the individual metabolic products of adrenal cortical hormones were separated and identified, confirm and extend these general conclusions. METHODSFour normal male subjects were studied: the ages were 31, 32, 63, and 65 years.All lived on a metabolic ward during the course of the study, and metabolic bal- ance data on these men have been reported (4).The essential details of the study are as follows: a control pe- 1 The authors gratefully acknowledge the assistance of grants from the American Cancer Society (on recom- mendation of the Committee on Growth of the National Research Council), the Commonwealth Fund, the Anna Fuller Fund, the Lillia Babbitt Hyde Foundation, and the National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of Health of the United States Public Health Service.2Konrad Dobriner died March 10, 1952.3 So far as we are aware, the interpretation of the data and the conclusions drawn are in essential agreement with the views held by the late Dr. Dobriner.