Quantitative ultrastructural study of the rat adrenal cortex in renal encapsulation-induced hypertension

Hypertension was induced in young rats by latex encapsulation of both kidneys. By the fourth week, 85% of the renal-encapsulated (RE) rats became hypertensive. Varying degrees of cardiovascular involvement were evident in the moderately to severely hypertensive rats. The level of systolic blood pressure was directly correlated with the width and the volume of zona glomerulosa of the adrenal cortex. Electron microscopy combined with morphometric-stereologic techniques was employed to quantitate change in the adrenal cortex. The cells of both zona glomerulosa and zona fasciculata of RE rats showed significant increases in the volume of the cell, nucleus, smooth endoplasmic reticulum, and lipid droplets; only in the zona glomerulosa cells was the increase in surface area of the smooth endoplasmic reticulum statistically significant. It is suggested that these structural changes associated with renal-encapsulation hypertension are related at least in part to stress of the hypertensive cardiovascular disease.