ADRENAL REGENERATION HYPERTENSION1

SKELTON (1–4) has reported that hypertension, associated with characteristic pathologic lesions, develops if one adrenal is removed and the other enucleated and allowed to regenerate in rats sensitized by unilateral nephrectomy and a high sodium chloride intake. The studies reported here were undertaken to determine if we could confirm Skelton’s reports, and if so, to examine the effects of various endocrine and pharmacologic manipulations in enucleate rats. Our results show unequivocally the reality of the syndrome described by Skelton and demonstrate its responsiveness to various treatments. An abstract of this work has been published (5). methods Most of our experiments were performed on female rats of about 150 gm. initial body weight. In addition, observations were made on males of the same size and small females (ca. 58 gm.). One kidney was removed in all cases and 1% sodium chloride substituted for drinking water. This procedure sensitizes animals to the pressor influence of regenerating adrenals a...