Cyclic AMP levels in purified rat adrenal zonae fasciculata and reticularis cells and the effect of adrenocorticotrophic hormone.
Cyclic AMP levels were measured in combined cells and supernatant fraction from incubations of dispersed rat adrenal zona fasciculata and zona reticularis cell preparations purified by unit gravity sedimentation. These measurements were correlated with deoxycorticosterone (DOC) and corticosterone outputs from the cells in the presence or absence of ACTH. Similar measurements of cyclic AMP outputs were made for unpurified dispersed, decapsulated rat adrenal cell preparations and they were found to correspond to previously reported measurements made by other workers on such preparations. The response of the purest zona reticularis cells to ACTH in terms of cyclic AMP output was 28-fold lower than that of the purest zona fasciculata cells (compared with a fivefold lower DOC output and a 20-fold lower corticosterone output) and the response to ACTH of the mixed-cell preparations was related to the number of zona fasciculata cells in the preparation, i.e. the greater the proportion of zona fasciculata cells in the preparation the greater the response in terms of both outputs of cyclic AMP and of either of the two steroids measured. This correlation is in accordance with the theory that cyclic AMP may be the secondary messenger for both zona fasciculata and zona reticularis cells of the rat adrenal cortex in mediating the response to an ACTH stimulus.
D000311:Adrenal Glands / Q000166:cytology / Q000187:drug effects / Q000378:metabolism*; D000324:Adrenocorticotropic Hormone / Q000494:pharmacology*; D000818:Animals; D000242:Cyclic AMP / Q000096:biosynthesis / Q000378:metabolism*; D004305:Dose-Response Relationship, Drug; D005260:Female; D051381:Rats
D000324:Adrenocorticotropic Hormone; D000242:Cyclic AMP