Effects of a bacterial polysaccharide (piromen) on the pituitary-adrenal axis: adrenal ascorbic acid, cholesterol and histologic alterations.

IMPROVEMENT has been reported in a variety of disease conditions after the administration of pyrogenic substances (1). Piromen®, a bacterial polysaccharide complex of Pseudomonas origin, has been effectively used for the relief of allergic conditions (2–4), dermatologic upheavels (5, 6), opthalmologic dyscrasias (7), vascular (8) and central neuronal pathology (9). Kirkendall et al. (10), Conn and his associates (11), and Wexler and co-workers (12) have shown that Piromen stimulates the pituitary gland to release corticotropic hormone with attendant adrenal cortical sequelae. A series of fundamental endocrine studies was undertaken in order to categorize, more fully, the adreno-cortical response to Piromen, both qualitatively and quantitatively. Adrenal ascorbic acid, cholesterol and histologic alterations served as the point of primary focus. Both intact and hypophysectomized male, Sprague-Dawley rats, weighing from 80 to 120 gm., were employed in these studies. Piromen, in a single intraperitoneal3 inje...