The Utilization of Acetone Bodies Iii. the Influence of Adrenalectomy

That the adrenal gland plays a specific r81e in fat metabolism has been suggested for many years (1). More recently this hypothesis received further support when Long and Lukens (2) reported that adrenalectomy produces a marked reduction in the acetone body excretion of the depancreatised cat. This observation soon received ample confirmation by other investigators who found that adrenalectomy likewise reduced the excretion of acetone bodies, which follows phlorhizin intoxication (3), pregnancy (4), fasting (5), and the administration of extracts of the anterior pituitary gland (5, 6). The general conclusion derived from these observations implied that adrenalectomy inhibits the formation of acetone bodies and hence that the adrenal plays an essential rBle in fat catabolism. The observation by MacKay and Barnes (5) that the adrenalectomized rat may develop a ketonemia after the administration of an extract of the anterior pituitary gland suggested to us that the adrenal glands may not be essential to ketogenesis. Consequently we studied simultaneously the blood and urine acetone body content of normal and adrenalectomized rats treated with an extract of the anterior pituitary gland. We found that whereas the acetone body excretion consequent to the administration of the extract was markedly decreased in the adrenalectomized rats, the blood acetone body level did not vary significantly from that of the pituitary-treated normal rats (7). From this it was con-