Effect of Hypophysectomy on Compensatory Renal Hypertrophy After Unilateral Nephrectomy

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Abstract
The influence of the pituitary on unilateral renal hypertrophy was studied in 22 dogs and 85 rats. In dogs the left kidney was removed 2 to 4 weeks after hypophysectomy and the expt terminated on the 20th day after unilateral nephrectomy. In dogs, hypophysectomy prevented hypertrophy in the remaining kidney. The admn. of lyophilized anterior pituitary extract to the hypophysectornized unilaterally nephrectomized dog resulted in a percentage of hypertrophy of the remaining kidney from 11 to 2 times the percentage of hypertrophy of the remaining kidney in the hypophysectomized and normal dogs, respectively. A significant compensatory renal hypertrophy in the remaining kidney occurred in hypophysectomized unilaterally nephrectomized rats. However, substitution treatment even in the high dosage, did not result in sufficient hypertrophy to restore the remaining kidneys of these rats to normal size when the kidney wts. were related to body wts. Evidence and results of this study, particularly in dogs, seem to indicate that there is specific renotropic activity in the anterior pituitary gland.