Experimental Hypertension and Other Responses to 18- Hydroxy-Deoxycorticosterone Treatment in the Rat*

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Abstract
Young female unilaterally nephrectomized, salt-loaded, Sprague-Dawley rats were treated with 200 .mu.g or 1 mg 18-hydroxy-deoxycorticosterone-21-acetate (18-OH-DOCA) in oil daily, and a group of kidney-intact animals on a normal salt intake was given 2 mg/day. The hormone was not found to increase saline consumption, increase urinary K or kallikrein excretion, or depress serum renin activity or K concentration. Slight hypertension did develop at 3 wk in salt-loaded rats on the lowest dose, but this was neither increased by higher dosage or longer treatment, nor reflected by increased heart or kidney weight. The effect of 40 mg pellet implantation of DOCA and 18-OH-DOCA was then compared in unilaternally nephrectomized, salt-loaded, female Fischer 344 rats. The former caused increased saline consumption, hypertension, hypokalemia, and heart and kidney enlargement, whereas 18-OH-DOCA did not. The hypertensogenic potency of 18-OH-DOCA is, at best, a reflection of its known, very weak, mineralocorticoid activity.