Our research activities have been oriented to the effect of pharmaeologic agents on tissue metabolism in the low flow state of circulatory shock. Specifically, we have been most interested in the effect of glucocorticoids on cellular metabolism because these agents exert a reproducible protective effect during septic and endotoxic shock in rats and monkeys. Further, we have studied the differences between untreated animals in shock and those treated with pharmaeologic agents in an attempt to determine which cellular metabolic changes are critical to survival. This paper will present our studies as well as those of other laboratories, which have defined the effects on tissue metabolism of certain pharmaeologic agents: those which stimulate cyclic adenosine monophosphate (AMP) (epinephrine, norepinephrine, glucagon, and prostaglandin) and those which do not (the glucocorticoids).