Compensatory adrenal growth in relation to stress of surgery and estradiol in adult male rats.

ACTH infusion at the time of unilateral adrenalectomy inhibits the early rapid compensatory growth (CAG) in the remaining adrenal. We examined the hypothesis that different duration of surgery and/or the enhanced response to the stress of surgery, induced by estradiol treatment, might modify CAG. Adult male rats untreated, estradiol benzoate treated (EB) 300 microg/kg or vehicle treated (VE) for 3 days, were Sham or left adrenalectomized after 18 to 20 min procedure (prolonged surgery) or after 14 to 16 min procedure (short surgery).