EFFECT OF THYROIDECTOMY ON HYPERTENSION, NEPHROSCLEROSIS AND CARDIAC LESIONS PRODUCED BY DESOXYCORTICOSTERONE ACETATE (DCA) TREATMENT IN THE RAT12

Abstract

IT WAS shown by Selye, Hall and Rowley (1943) that treatment with desoxycorticosterone acetate (DCA) of unilaterally nephrectomized rats given a high sodium intake resulted in a syndrome of which the main characteristics were hypertension, polyuria, nephrosclerosis, cardiac nodules and periarteritis nodosa. Some of these changes are so similar to those of ltypertension in man that the assumption was made (Selye, Hall and Rowley, 1943) that mineralo-corticoids could be involved in human hypertension. This hypothesis has received additional support from recent work on the so-called meta-corticoid hypertension (Friedman and Friedman, 1949, 1951; Prado, 1950; Green, Saunders, Wahlgren and Craig, 1952; Salgado, 1953). A number of measures have been reported to inhibit the development of the syndrome induced by DCA; we have found that hypophysectomy before or even during the hormonal treatment can inhibit some of the toxic manifestations of DCA overdosage (Salgado and Selye, 1952; Salgado and Selye, 1953).