| Abstract: | Corticosteroid levels in the blood serum of White Rock pullets were significantly increased within 1 hr after an iv injection of heat-killed Salmonella pullorum antigen (SP-Ag), and reached levels 7 to 10 times that of PBS-injected controls within 2 hr after SP-Ag injection. Incubations with isolated adrenal cells indicated that serum from SP-Ag-injected birds had the ability to stimulate the synthesis or release of corticosteroids twice that of serum PBS-injected birds. Stripping the serum from SP-Ag-injected birds with activated charcoal and precipitated silica (Quso G-32) removed the corticosteroids and the adrenal-stimulating ability. A 2-hr incubation of isolated adrenal cells with leukocytes from spleens removed from chickens 1 hr after injection with SP-Ag, using stripped serum as the medium, stimulated a two- to fivefold increase in corticosteroid as compared to splenic leukocytes from PBS-injected chickens incubated in the same medium. The results indicate that an "ACTH-like" substance was produced by the S. pullorum antigen-stimulated splenic leukocytes. |
