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Laboratoire de Physiologie du Développement, Université Pierre et Marie Curie, 9 quai St Bernard, Paris 5e, France

(Received 15 April 1976)

The treatment of female rats with corticosteroids during pregnancy, causes atrophy of the foetal adrenals (see Jost, 1966; Skebelskaya, 1968) and decreases the corticosterone content of the adrenals (D'Angelo, Paul & Wall, 1973). Corticosteroids are able to cross the placenta from the mother to the foetus.

Adrenal atrophy also occurs when rat foetuses are injected with corticosteroids (see Jost, 1966). This effect is attributed to the blocking action of corticosteroids on the corticostimulating activity of the foetal hypophysis and not to the direct action of corticosteroids on the foetal adrenals. This hypothesis is supported by the atrophy of the foetal pituitary gland (see Jost, 1966) and by the decrease of its adrenocorticotrophin (ACTH) content (Skebelskaya, 1968) when mothers or foetuses are treated with corticosteroids. Moreover, foetal adrenal weight increases