It is well known that the adrenal cortex of the newborn infant differs anatomically from that of the adult and that morphological changes take place in the gland during the first few days and weeks of extra-uterine life. Until recent times, however, very little had been known about the function of the adrenal cortex during this period and it is questioned whether or not the adrenal, like the ki...

Adrenocortical carcinoma (ACC) is an uncommon malignancy originating from cortex of adrenal gland. The most common pitfall in diagnosis of ACC is to distinguish it from pheochromocytoma. Here we report a 62-year-old hypertensive man with presentation of dyspnea. The laboratory data showed an increase in urine cortisol and renin with a mild increase in aldosterone, but decrease in adrenocorticot...

A 25-year-old woman is described who had suspected hyperfunction of the adrenal cortex. She complained of fatiguability, excessive hair growth, and attacks of swelling of the face, hands, and ankles. Moreover she had a ;moon face', hypertension, a ;buffalo hump', and livid striae of the loins and hypogastrium. Adrenal function tests yielded values which could not be clearly interpreted. Operati...

BACKGROUND Neurofibromatosis type I (NF1, MIM#162200) is a relatively frequent genetic condition, which predisposes to tumor formation. Apart from tumors, individuals with NF1 often exhibit endocrine abnormalities such as precocious puberty (2,5-5% of NF1 patients) and some cases of hypertension (16% of NF1 patients). Several cases of adrenal cortex adenomas have been described in NF1 individua...

It has been hypothesized that exhaled breath temperature (EBT) is related to the degree of airway inflammation/remodeling in asthma. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the relationship between the level of airway response to exercise and EBT in a group of controlled or partly controlled asthmatic children. Fifty asthmatic children underwent measurements of EBT before and after a standard...

In ageing human adrenal glands there occur some morphological changes which result in alterations of their cortex endocrine function. Glucocorticoid-excreting cells in the zona glomerulosa live longer than androgen-producing cells in the zona reticularis, which undergo significant apoptosis. Therefore, in elderly humans cortisol levels are normal (significantly higher than at young age), while ...

IL-18 is a pleiotropic cytokine also proposed to have a role in modulating immune function during stress. Initially found in immune cells, IL-18 mRNA is detectable in several tissues including the cells of the zona reticularis and the zona fasciculata of the adrenal cortex, where its levels are elevated by acute stress or adrenocorticotropic hormone treatment. In the present study, we compared ...

The time-honored, useful, and frequently applied laboratory test of clinical medicine-the white blood cell count-is acquiring new meaning through recent discoveries in the basic sciences of medicine. The observation by Dougherty and White,16"17'19 and by Reinhardt, Aron, and Li,58 of the dissolution of lymphocytes by the action of adrenocortical hormone provokes reinterpretation of a number of ...

It has been shown earlier (1) that the metabolism of carbohydrate is disturbed in scorbutic guinea pigs as evidenced by diminished glucose tolerance, deposition of liver glycogen, and insulin content of the pancreas. Although the adrenalin content of the adrenals of scorbutic guinea pigs is increased, it has been shown by removing the adrenal medulla that adrenalin is not responsible for the lo...