title: Cortical adrenal mitochondrial morphology changes in functional state: new insights.
abstract: We compared changes in the morphology of mitochondrial cristae with those in the blood and adrenal content of steroid hormones after the stimulation or inhibition of steroidogenesis. Rats were treated with adrenocorticotrophic hormone or angiotensin II to elicit steroidogenesis and with dexamethasone to inhibit it. Blood and adrenal glands were collected after several time intervals for measurements of steroids and their main intermediates. In the zona fasciculata, mitochondrial ultrastructure was investigated by high resolution scanning electron microscopy. We found that the morphometric data correlated well with the measurements of hyper- or hypo-activity of steroidogenesis over short periods of time (4 h) but not over longer observation times. A peculiar finding was that, contrary to previous reports, 11-deoxycortisol was present in adult rat adrenal tissue.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Sciences, University of Cagliari, Cittadella Universitaria di Monserrato, Cagliari, Italy. isola@unica.it
authors.forename: Raffaella
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Isola
authors.forename: Paola
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Solinas
authors.forename: Carolina
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Concettoni
authors.forename: Francesca
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Atzeni
authors.forename: Francesco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Loy
authors.forename: Martina
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Diana
authors.forename: Michela
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Isola
authors.forename: Gilberta
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Giacchetti
authors.forename: Marco
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Boscaro
authors.forename: Alessandro
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Riva
authors.forename: Stefano
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Mariotti
mesh_terms: D000302:Adrenal Cortex / Q000187:drug effects / Q000648:ultrastructure*; D000324:Adrenocorticotropic Hormone / Q000494:pharmacology; D000804:Angiotensin II / Q000494:pharmacology; D000818:Animals; D003907:Dexamethasone / Q000494:pharmacology; D008297:Male; D008928:Mitochondria / Q000187:drug effects / Q000648:ultrastructure*; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley
chemical_list: D000804:Angiotensin II; D003907:Dexamethasone; D000324:Adrenocorticotropic Hormone