DESOXYCORTICOSTERONE ACETATE: STUDIES ON THE REVERSIBILITY OF ITS EFFECT ON BLOOD PRESSURE AND RENAL DAMAGE IN RATS1

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Abstract
In previous studies it has been reported that the administration of desoxycorticosterone acetate (DCA) to rats, when accompanied by a liberal intake of sodium chloride, leads to cardiac and renal enlargement (Selye, 1940; Green, Coleman and McCabe, 1948; Knowlton, Stoerk, Seegal and Loeb, 1946), renal damage (Selye 1943) and to the development of hypertension (Grollman, Harrison and Williams 1940; Selye and Hall, 1943). The alterations produced by this steroid are much intensified in the presence of pre-existing renal damage. With the experimental conditions employed in this laboratory, hypertension following DCA injections has been observed only in rats previously rendered nephritic by a cytotoxic serum (a rabbit anti-rat kidney serum). In these hypertensive animals, a more rapid progression in the course of the pre-existing nephritic process has been found. The present study was undertaken in an attempt to determine whether the hypertension in rats given anti-kidney serum and DCA was a phenomenon dependent upon its acceleration of the renal damage,