GLYCOGEN DEPOSITION IN DIFFERENT SKELETAL MUSCLES INDUCED BY CORTISONE AND ESTRADIOL1

TESTERONE, growth hormone, and certain adrenal cortical hormones are known to increase the deposition of glycogen in the skeletal muscles of the rat. Testosterone propionate (1) prevents the loss of muscle glycogen which occurs ordinarily in the fasting hypophysectomized rat (glycostatic effect), (2) increases muscle glycogen in gonadectomized rats (Leonard, 1952 a, b). Growth hormone, besides exhibiting glycostatic effects, increases muscle glycogen in normal rats (Russell and Wilhelmi, 1950; Illingworth and Russell, 1951). Adrenal cortical hormones or extracts of the type which influence carbohydrate metabolism will increase the level of glycogen in the muscles of adrenalectomized and hypophysectomized rats (Long and Katzin, 1938; Russell and Craig, 1939; Long, Katzin and Fry, 1940). In normal fasting rats and mice, these cortical hormones do not increase the deposition of muscle glycogen unless the animals are fed glucose during the period when the hormone is acting (Long, Katzin and Fry, 1940).