BODY WEIGHT, CUTANEOUS COLLAGEN AND HEXOSAMINE OF CORTISONE-TREATED FEMALE RATS OF VARIOUS AGES

[摘要] Body weight, collagen per total skin and hexosamine per total skin were determined in control and in cortisone-treated (1-21 daily injections) weanling, young adult and adult female rats. After variable periods of cortisone administration, body weight, collagen per total skin and hexosamine per total skin were decreased in each of the three age groups. Quantitative differences in the response of the different age groups of female rats to cortisone treatment were interpreted to indicate a greater initial effect (within 7 days) on body weight and collagen per total skin of weanling than of young adult or adult female rats. During the first 7 days of cortisone treatment, the percentage decrease of hexosamine per total skin from control values was at least as great in weanling as in young adult or adult female rats. However, hexosamine per total skin of weanling female rats was more resistant to changes from additional cortisone treatment than was that of young adult or adult rats. Comparison of the results obtained from the cortisone-treated female rats with previously published data from similar experiments with different aged male rats indicate that under the investigational conditions chosen the factors measured respond, in some instances, to cortisone treatment in a quantitatively different manner in male and female rats. In each of the three age groups, the percentage decrease of body weight from control values was greater in male than in female rats. No consistent differences were observed between the collagen per total skin, as a percentage of the collagen per total skin of control animals, of cortisone-treated male and female rats of the same age. The skin collagen of young adult and adult control and cortisone-treated female rats represented a similar fraction of body weight, but in young adult and adult cortisone-treated male rats, skin collagen represented a greater portion of body weight than that of control rats at certain experimental points. The effect of cortisone treatment on hexosamine per total skin was greater in male than in female weanling rats.