[The functional activity of rat fetus adrenal cortex in monolayer tissue culture]

A study was made of the functional activity of the adrenal cortex in 15 1/2-, 18 1/2-, and 21 1/2-day rat fetuses and neonates. Adrenal tissue was incubated after its preliminary trypsinization at 37 degrees C for over 2 weeks with and without ACTH addition into the culture medium, in the amount of 0.1 U/ml. The corticosterone level was determined in the culture medium fluorimetrically. The activity of 3 beta-oxysteroid dehydrogenase was determined histochemically. Corticosterone was revealed in the culture medium. The activity of 3 beta-oxysteroid dehydrogenase was found in the cells of the cultivated adrenal glands. Addition of ACTH into the culture medium considerably increased the corticosterone level and elevated the activity of 3 beta-oxysteroid dehydrogenase. It can be considered on the basis of the aforesaid that cells of the primary culture of the adrenal cortex of rat fetuses aged 15 1/2-, 18 1/2-, and 21 1/2-days and of neonates could form, in the process of incubation, corticosterone from the endogenous substrates in the course of 11, 16, 8 and 13 cultivation days, respectively. The presence of ACTH in the culture medium for the adrenal glands of rat fetuses (of all the gestation periods under study) and of neonates intensified the steroidogenesis.