Decreased Epinephrine Response of Adenylate Cyclase Activity of Lymphoid Cells from Immunodeficient Pituitary Dwarf Mice¹

Although basal activities of adenylate cyclase in lymphoid cells and liver cells were similar in suckling and weaned Ames pituitary dwarf mice and normal littermates, the cyclase from the thymus and spleen of weaned dwarfs was not stimulated by 10 µM epinephrine. Thymus cyclase from normal mice was stimulated by about 300% and spleen cyclase by 150% by epinephrine. Similar results were obtained with weaned Snell-Bagg dwarf mice, although the lymphoid cell adenylate cyclases responded somewhat better to epinephrine. The significance of these observations is discussed in relation to the pathogenesis of the endocrine immunodeficiency syndrome of the weaned dwarf mouse.