Selectivity of Corticosteroid and Catecholamine Responses to Various Natural Stimuli

Abstract

For about the past 15 years, we have been involved in an experimental approach to the study of the neuroendocrine motor system of the brain which views the many interdependent neuroendocrine systems on as broad a scope as possible. Figure 1 presents a schematic view of the assemblage of the principal neuroendocrine systems known at the present time. When we began our studies during the 1950’s, interest in neuroendocrine regulation was heavily concentrated on just two systems, the pituitary-adrenal cortical and sympathetic-adrenal medullary systems. The view was steadily emerging in endocrinology, however, that the hormones of the various glands are highly interdependent in their metabolic effects throughout the body, being variously aligned in patterns of antagonistic, synergistic, or additive relationships with each other. No single hormone acts entirely alone in isolation. Houssay, among others, has emphasized that there is always a balance between opposing and cooperating hormones acting on any particular metabolic process (Houssay, 1957). Our guiding working hypothesis has been, therefore, that if hormones are so closely interdependent in their actions at the metabolic level, then it seems logical that the integrative mechanisms controlling endocrine secretion are organized in a manner closely in keeping with such interdependencies and that the secretion of the many hormones probably is accordingly coordinated on an overall basis (Mason, 1968c).