Role of adrenals on development of pressure-induced myocardial hypertrophy

Abstract

The effect of coarctation of the abdominal aorta (AC) and of sham operation (SO) on the development of myocardial hypertrophy was studied in three groups of male rats, i.e., a group without treatment prior to AC or SO (untreated), a group with bilateral adrenalectomy (ADX) 5-7 days before AC or SO, and a group in which the adrenal medulla was removed (MDX) 5-7 days before AC or SO. MDX resulted in functional elimination of the adrenal medulla without apparent effect on cortical function. The animals were killed 7-10 days after AC or SO. AC produced carotid blood pressure (CBP) increases of 33, 31, and 25 mmHg in the untreated, ADX, and MDX groups, respectively. Ventricular weight (HW), ventricular RNA concentration, and RNA-to-DNA ratio increased significantly after AC only in the untreated and MDX groups. In the ADX group, hypertension was followed by an increase in HW that could be detected only after normalization for body weight. It is concluded that absence of the adrenal gland significantly reduces the development of pressure-induced myocardial hypertrophy. Apparently, this is due to the absence of the adrenal cortex and not absence of the adrenal medulla.