AN IMMEDIATE KIDNEY RESPONSE TO ACUTE STRESS

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Abstract
LITTLE is known about non-specific changes in the kidney structure of animals exposed to acute stress. Selye (1937) frequently observed cloudy swelling in the renal tubules of rats during the alarm reaction. Leduc and Guillemin (1949) reported that while the dry weight of most organs is diminished during acute cold exposure, that of the kidney, the heart and the brain remains constant. In the course of a nutritional study of the alarm reaction we observed that the kidney, like the adrenal, reacts to every type of acute stress with an immediate rise of its weight (Constantinides 1950). The increment becomes measurable as rapidly as 20 hours after commencement of stress but it is of a small order of magnitude. The data of the present paper show that a renal enlargement is an integral part of the alarm reaction,