The production of hypertension, nephrosclerosis and cardiac lesions by methylandrostenediol treatment in the rat.

Abstract

The “hyalinosis syndrome” is the name applied, by Selye (1946, 1950), to the cardiovascular-renal changes which occur in salt-treated, unilaterally nephrectomized rats administered such steroids as desoxycorticosterone acetate (DCA) or Reichstein’s Compound S (desoxocortisone) for prolonged periods. The characteristic changes of this syndrome are hypertension, renal and cardiac hypertrophy, nephrosclerosis, glomerular hyalinization, “rheumatic-like” cardiac nodules and frequently periarteritis nodosa. Up to the present time such changes have been observed only after treatment with steroids known to possess appreciable mineralocorticoid activity. This fact, plus the observation that certain stresses, as well as the administration of lyophilized anterior pituitary powder (LAP) or alkaline pituitary extract (APE) also produced the hyalinosis syndrome, led Selye to postulate (1946, 1950) that similar pathological conditions in the human might be pathogenetically related to hyperfunction of the anterior pituitary-adrenocortical system involving the increased secretion of mineralo-corticoids. Selye and his co-workers have further observed that experimental nephrosclerosis and hypertension were more readily produced in female or castrate male rats than in intact males