THE TERATOGENIC INDUCTION OF HYPERTENSION*

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Abstract
Rats were subjected during pregnancy to various hormones (aldosterone, cortisone, desoxycorticosterone, progesterone), dietary alterations (low K, choline deficient, high NaCl, ethanol) and drugs (chlorothiazide, ethionine). Many of the offspring of such animals developed hypertension on reaching maturity without manifesting renal excretory defects or lesions in the kidney obvious on histological examination. The condition accordingly simulates closely the congenitally appearing essential hypertension of the human. The results indicate that one can induce a functional disturbance such as hypertension by teratogenic influences presumably on the kidney during its early stages of embryogenesis. The findings have a bearing on our present concepts of the pathogenesis of essential hypertension in man and on the general problem of the teratogenic induction of human disease.