The Effect of Stress on the Structure of the Adrenal Cortex

Abstract

The appearances of the normal adrenal gland are different at autopsy from those of operatively removed glands and are explicable on the basis of the effects of ACTH upon the adrenal cortex (p. 29). The changes are caused by the increased circulating levels of ACTH which rise because of antemortem stress induced by such conditions such as trauma, burns, infection, myocardial infarction, etc (Symington 1969). Thus the changes take the form of an increase in adrenal weight and an alteration in morphology, which will commence with lipid loss at the interface zone between the zona reticularis and the zona fasciculata. The precise changes seen at postmortem examination, however, will depend upon the length and the severity of the stress.