SUMMARY

Auto- and homografts of adrenal medullae depleted of reserpine were used in order to follow the rate of synthesis and storage of pressor amines in non-innervated chromaffin cells. The changes were followed by histochemical methods. The findings indicate that there is no significant difference between the rate of storage of catechol amines in the implanted chromaffin cell and in the normal adrenal medulla. After reserpine-induced depletion of adrenaline and noradrenaline in the adrenal medulla of the intact rat, catechol amines reaccumulate slowly and reach normal levels by 9-14 days [Coupland, 1958a, 1959] or 21 days [Callingham & Mann, 1958]. In the present work pressor amine-depleted chromaffin cells have been implanted into the anterior chamber of the rat's eye and the subsequent changes followed by using histochemical methods. EXPERIMENTAL METHODS Six groups of four albino rats (Wistar strain) were used. Two animals of each group were injected with reserpine (15 mg/kg, i.v.). Twenty-four hr later the animals were anaesthetized with ether and the left adrenal glands of the injected animals removed