Corticosterone in mouse adrenal in relation to sex and heterotopic pituitary isografting

¹ Division of Cancer Biology, Department of Pathology, University of Minnesota Medical School, Minneapolis; and Cambridge State School and Hospital, Cambridge, Minnesota

In two populations of mice, one inbred (C, Bag albino), the other hybrid, adrenal ‘corticosterone’ levels determined at time of peak physiologic secretion differed consistently between the two sexes. The female glands, heavier than those of males, had the higher content and concentration of ‘corticosterone.’ In female C and D₈ (Dilute Brown, subline 8) mice, adrenal ‘corticosterone’ content is further elevated during a period from about 64 to about 180 days after pituitary isografting; i.e. many months prior to the appearance of breast cancers, induced or enhanced in these stocks by the heterotopic pituitary.