Effect of Cortisone Acetate and of Certain Stressors on Blood Pressure and on the Pathology of Heart and Kidney in Uninephrectomized Male Rats

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Abstract
This study is a partial test of the hypothesis that severe stress should suppress the signs of hypercorticalism in rats overdosed with cortisone acetate. Male rats of the Sprague-Dawley strain were uninephrectomized and maintained on a high sodium chloride, medium carbohydrate diet. Some rats also were adrenalectomized. Cortisone acetate was given in doses ranging from 2.5 to 5 mg per rat per day for 6 weeks. In one experiment, stressing the rats by the daily injection of 1.5% HCHO was associated with suppression of the mild hypertension that otherwise developed in rats overdosed with cortisone. There was no suppression of renal pathology. In some experiments, fracturing a bone twice each week was associated with lower average blood pressures, but there was no reduction in the amount of pathology caused by overdosage with cortisone. The stressors tested did not block the loss of weight or the regression of thymus and spleen in rats overdosed with cortisone. The stressors tested failed to cause hypertension and renalcardiovascular pathology.