Administration of hydrocortisone to the malnourished rats 3.5 hours before sacrifice produced marked reaggregation of the ribosomes into larger polysomes (n > 2) with concomitant increase (+44 to +96%) in uptake of radioactive leucine in the cell-free system. Associated with this feature was a relatively low uptake of 14C-leucine in vitro by the C-ribosomes. In the malnourished rats, about 50% of liver ribosomes was recovered as monomers and dimers.
The liver, which is a major target organ of the glucocorticoids, was also studied. Most prominent of the ultrastructural changes was the profound increase in number of lipid droplets. Electron microscopic evaluation of the adrenal cortical zona fasciculata in the protein-deficient rats revealed certain alterations which were consistent with hypofunction of the gland. Young, growing rats (90 to 120 g) were fed ad libitum a 0.5% lactalbumin diet for 12 weeks when they developed many of the features associated with the human syndrome of protein-calorie malnutrition.
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