[Autoregulation of hormonogenesis in the adrenal cortex]

Experiments were conducted on 60 rats. An attempt was made to ascertain with the aid of histochemical methods the possibility of a direct action of glucocorticoids on the adrenal glands. Incomplete coincidence of histochemical changes following hypophysectomy with the changes caused by the action of cortisone for the same period (10 days), and also a distinct depression with cortisone of histochemical shifts characteristic of the action of ACTH in hypophysectomized animals pointed to the direct (not mediated through the hypophysis) influence of cortisone on the adrenal cortex.