Adrenalectomy decreases the sphingomyelin and cholesterol content of fat cell ghosts.

Adrenalectomy produces a significant fall in the sphingomyelin and cholesterol content of ghosts isolated from rat epididymal fat cells. Previous studies from this laboratory have demonstrated an effect of dexamethasone in vitro to increase the sphingomyelin content of fat cell ghosts obtained from adrenalectomized animals. The present study demonstrates that adrenalectomy influences the membrane lipid content. Dexamethasone, in vitro, was found to increase the sphingomyelin of epididymal fat cell ghosts isolated from intact animals, as it previously had been shown to affect epididymal fat cell ghosts obtained from adrenalectomized animals. Incubation with dexamethasone for 3 h had no effect on the cholesterol content of the ghosts. Adrenalectomy, on the other hand, resulted in a significant decrease in the cholesterol content of the fat cell ghosts.