COMPARATIVE STUDIES BETWEEN HORMONE CONTENTS AND MORPHOLOGICAL APPEARANCES IN HUMAN ADRENAL CORTEX

The hormone content in Cushing-type non-functioning tumors of the adrenal glands was measured to be compared with those of functioning adenomas. Furthermore, the relationship between the hormone contents and the proportion of clear-type cells and compact-type cells in the tissues were also studied. The contents of aldosterone and corticosterone were significantly higher in primary aldosteronism than in other groups. The cortisol content was significantly higher in Cushing\u27s syndrome than in primary aldosteronism, but it was not statistically different from non-functioning adenomatous nodules. The patterns of hormone contents in non-functioning adenomatous nodules were similar to those in Cushing\u27s syndrome. In primary aldosteronism, there was a positive correlation between the aldosterone content and the increase of compact-type cells. Compact-type cells revealed high activities of 3β-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase and glucose 6-phosphate dehydrogenase. These results suggest that compact-type cells play an important role in synthesis and secretion of aldosterone in primary aldosteronism. In Cushing\u27s syndrome, there was no significant correlation between the cortisol content and the proportion of constituting cells. The activities of 3βHSD and G6PD in both types of cells were not so different from each other. Therefore, there may be a possibility that morphological differences in the two types of constituting cells show different phases of tumor cells in Cushing\u27s syndrome. In the non-functioning tumors, the scattered tumor cells revealed marked activities of 3βHSD and G6PD. These results suggest that the number of constituting cells of “non-functioning” tumors have some degree of endocrinologic activity