[The histological structure of the adrenals in three species of desert rodents].

Distinctions of the histological structure of the adrenal gland are especially pronounced in the order of rodents where even the generally accepted scheme of the zonal nature of the adrenal cortex proves to be insufficient for description. Under study was the histological structure of the adrenal of the gopher Spermophilopsis leptodactylus L., jerboa Dipus sagitta Pall. and gerbil Rhombomys opimus. The material of the study consisted of the adrenals of animals at different age and sex from the Kyzyl-Kum desert. The conditions of field collecting did not allow histochemical treatment of the material and only general histological analysis was undertaken. Characteristic features of the gopher adrenals are: a peculiar compression zone, absence of a pronounced juxtamedullary zone while a connective tissue layer being present between the cortex and medulla, availability in the medulla of one type of cells producing adrenaline. The adrenal of the jerboa is characterized by absence of a compression and a juxta-medullary zone, as well as of a connective tissue layer between the cortex and medulla, availability of two different types of cells in the medulla which produce different catecholamines. The adrenal of the gerbil is characterized by a less, as compared with other rodents, lipid in the cortex, absence of a pronounced reticular zone and presence of two types of cells in the medulla.