Reduction of mitotic rate in the wool follicle by cortisol

Abstract

Cortisol reduces wool growth at the systemic and local level, but the minimum time for a response to take place has never been reported because the methods used to measure the changes require at least 4 days of wool growth. A technique using local intradermal colchicines to estimate mitotic rate in wool follicles has been used in the present study, and can measure changes in mitotic rate over periods as short as 2 h. Within the dose range 0 to 1000 8g, intradermal injections of cortisol into adrenalectomized sheep had no effect on mitotic rate in wool follicles within 6 h. Stimulation of endogenous release of cortisol using exogenous adrenocorticotrophic hormone in entire sheep, was similarly ineffective within 5 h. Further investigations using adrenalectomized sheep revealed that bolus injections of hydrocortisone also had no effect on mitotic rate within 5 h. A fourth experiment was conducted, in which 15 adrenalectomized sheep were infused with: a control infusate for 4 days, followed by this infusate containing cortisol at a rate equivalent to 0, 0.87 or 1-82 mg kg-1 day-1 for 4 days, followed by a further 4 days of control infusate. Five hours after the change from control to the cortisol infusate, there was no significant difference in mitotic rate between treatment groups when adjusted using mean mitotic rate in the pre-cortisol period as a covariate (P = 0.887). However, 29 h of infusion with cortisol was sufficient to bring about a significant reduction in mitotic rate (P = 0.034). During the following 3 days of cortisol infusion, mitotic rate was maintained at a significantly lower level in the treated groups (P = 0.018), with the greatest effect apparent in the group which received the highest dose of cortisol. At 53 h post-cortisol infusion, there was a significant recovery in both cortisol treated groups to mitotic rates significantly above those recorded in the pre-cortisol infusion period (P = 0.003), while mitotic rate remained unchanged in the group which received no cortisol. It is concluded that acute changes in plasma cortisol concentration are not likely to produce acute changes in wool growth, but a sustained elevation of plasma cortisol concentration will reduce the rate of wool growth by reducing mitotic rate in wool follicles.