The role of the adrenal cortex in the normal adaptation to dietary sodium deprivation.

Abstract

During short periods of rigid dietary sodium deprivation, there was no significant change in the urinary output of total 17-hydroxycorticoids in a normal subject and in a patient with intact adrenals given a constant quantity of cortisone orally. The urinary excretion of cortisol and cortisone was also unaffected under these circumstances. The administration of a constant dose of prednisone or deoxycorticosterone to patients with Addison's disease did not permit normal adaptation to acute dietary sodium deprivation, although the latter was much more effective than the former. These observations tend to emphasize the physiologic importance of a rise in the urinary excretion of aldosterone in the adaptation to sodium restriction, and it would appear that the rise in urinary levels of aldosterone during a low sodium diet is a reflection of an increased secretion of this hormone rather than a result of alteration in its intermediary metabolism.