The effects of acute stress and of ACTH upon ascorbic acid and lipid content of the adrenal glands of wild rats

Animal evolution during domestication: the domesticated fox as a model

“…(10,11) In contrast, the activity of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, the key hormonal regulator of adaptation to stress, became attenuated in the very few domesticates studied in this respect. (12)(13)(14) The same morphological changes, first in terms of overall body size and its proportions and also color, length, and texture of the coat, appeared in many domesticates. (2,(3)(4)(5)7,8,11) Some of these attributes (white spotting, floppy ears, curly tails) have been aptly called the morphological markers of domestication ( Fig.…”

The effects of long‐term exposure to cold upon adrenal weight and ascorbic acid content in wild and domesticated norway rats

“…That this is not the case can be seen by comparing the adrenal weights in the control groups with the adrenal weight of recently captured wild rats (Rogers & Richter, 1948) or of wild rats shot in their natural habitat (Woods, unpublished observations (Woods, 1954b (1949) on avian forms and with the fact that it has been found impossible to detect increased adrenal cortical activity in response to acute stress in other feral species (Alpert, 1952;Giroud & Santa, 1939;Jailer, 1949;Jailer & Boas, 1950;Kessler & Leathem, 1952;Zarrow & Baldini, 1952;Woods, 1953Woods, , 1954bWoods, , 1957, and raises the question whether substantially increased ACTH production in response to stress occurs at all in mammals other than domesticated laboratory forms.…”

“…The failure of acute stress and of ACTH to produce changes in the amount of ascorbic acid in the adrenals of such feral species has been cited as evidence indicating that ascorbic acid is not directly related to the functional activity of the gland. It now appears that divergent points of view in this regard may be reconciled by considering two facts: (1) that ACTH thresholds may differ widely in different species (Wilbur & Rich, 1953;Woods, 1953), and (2) that non-domesticated species may not respond to stress by producing large amounts of ACTH (Woods, 1957).…”

“…Ordinarily, it is accepted that such adrenal hypertrophy occurs as a consequence of increased secretion of ACTH by the anterior pituitary under conditions of stress. Recent work on wild rats (Woods, 1953(Woods, , 1954b(Woods, , 1957 indicates that many kinds of acute stress may not activate the pituitary-adrenal cortical system in non-domesticated animals. It is certain, at least, that some rather severe stresses do not result in metabolic depletion of the adrenal cortex in wild rats.…”

Sex and Strain Differences in Basal and Induced Aniline Hydroxylase and Ethylmorphine N-Demethylase Activities from Domestic and Wild Rats

“…However, only wild rats of similar weight, size and appearance were used, so that it is estimated that their ages were not greatly different. It has been shown that the adrenal gland of wild rats weighs more than that of domestic rats, contains less ascorbic acid and presumably pro duces more steroid hormones [Woods, 1957], However, our results cannot be explained solely by this difference in the adrenocortical steroid levels of wild and domestic animals because the direction of altered activity in our experiments is opposite to that which would be anticipated from the known effects of adrenocortical steroids on drug metabolism [Gillette, 1967], It was unexpected that wild Norwegian rats would have lower P-450 values and lower Vmax for ethylmorphine N-demethylase than ten domestic strains. Animals in nature might be assumed to ingest or inhale more inducing substances than those in captivity; however, our results suggest that the opposite may be true, at least with regard to domestic rats housed in our laboratory and wild rats captured in a refuse dump in New Freedom, Pennsylvania.…”