SELECTIVE DEPLETION OF NORADRENALINE IN THE ADRENALS OF THE HAMSTER PRODUCED BY RESERPINE

Recently it has been demonstrated that the alkaloids of »Rauwolfia serpentina« cause depletion of catechol amines from the adrenal medulla in animals of different species (Holzbauer & Vogt, 1956; Carlsson & Hillarp, 1956; Kroneberg & Schümann, 1957; Molinatti et al., 1958). Considering separately the behaviour of the two main catechol amines of the medulla, it has been demonstrated by our previous studies (Camanni et al., 1958) that reserpine in relatively small doses causes in rats an almost complete depletion of the content of noradrenaline, while it causes no changes in the adrenaline content. These observations were recently confirmed by Eränkö & Hopsu (1958) in the adrenal medulla of rats but not of mice. In this animal they observed a parallel loss of both adrenaline and noradrenaline after reserpine administration. Since the functional response of the adrenal medulla to reserpine appears to be different from one species to another, we extended