[Functional and morphologic investigations of the human adrenal cortex in various diseases]

The paper is devoted to investigations of the human adrenal cortex on autopsy material obtained 1 h after death. The purpose was to study the features of 3 cortical zones in some diseases with relation to sex and age. Quantitative histoenzymological analysis was used, metabolic indices of corticocytes and the cortical microvascular wall in 3 functionally differentiated zones (glomerular, fascicular and reticular) were estimated. Histoenzymological reactions were subjected to cytospectrophotometric analysis with subsequent statistical processing of data array. Age-related features of the adrenal cortex differed considerably among men and women, and were associated with corticocytes as well as with the cortical microvascular wall. There was no age-related decrease in enzymatic activity in all the adrenocortical structures but there was change in the interrelationship among the 3 differentiated zones. In some diseases change of enzymatic activity proper was noted in all the zones however a histotopogram of the cortex typical of a given age, was preserved. Functional and morphological investigations permitted assessment of the rearrangement of intraadrenal homeostasis, reflecting, probably, shifts in the synthesis of the main 3 classes of corticosteroid hormones.