EFFECTS OF INTRAHYPOTHALAMIC BETAMETHAZONE IMPLANTS ON ADRENAL FUNCTION IN MALE SCELOPORUS-CYANOGENYS

Male S. cyanogenys were appropriately treated with Metopirone, an 11 beta hydroxylase enzyme inhibitor, thus blocking the synthesis of adrenal steroids. This treatment caused a highly significant increase in adrenal weight (controls 6.61 ± .49 mg/100 gm vs 10.58 ± 1.04 mg/100 gm, p < .001). Prior (30 days) stereotaxic implantation of a synthetic corticoid, betamethazone, in the hypothalamus, not only prevented this compensatory adrenal hypertrophy but reduced adrenal size below that of controls to 4.60 ± .19 mg/100 gm (p < .001). Blank hypothalamic implants and subcutaneous implants of betamethazone were without effect, indicating that the operative procedure itself did not cause hypertrophy nor was the steroid implanted in the hypothalamus acting systemically. While the possibility that the effects noted may be mediated at the adeno-hypophyseal level has not been eliminated, the data suggest that the hypothalamus of S. cyanogenys contains steroid-sensitive receptor cells which control adrenal size via the anterior pituitary gland. © 1970.