The importance of hypophyseal hormones for structural cardiovascular adaptation in hypertension

The effect of renal artery clipping was tested in three groups of male Sprague-Dawley rats: (1) 30 control animals, (2) 30 hypophysectomized animals, and (3) 30 hypophysectomized animals treated with growth hormone and thyroxine. Fifteen rats in each group were clipped and 15 acted as controls. In the first group clipping raised arterial pressure and plasma renin activity. Thirty-five days after clipping, pair-perfused hindquarter preparations at maximal dilation and maximal pressor response were both increased, reflecting, respectively, decreased lumen diameters and increased media thickness in the resistance vessels. Clipping also increased left ventricular weight. Hypophysectomy eliminated the weight gain, and the maximal pressor response and maximal dilation were lower than in the control and treated groups. Hypophysectomy also considerably reduced the rise in blood pressure on clipping and, even more so, the associated structural cardiovascular changes. Replacement therapy with growth hormone and thyroxine almost restored the weight gain and also the structural responses of the heart and vessels to clipping. We conclude that pituitary hormones play an important, probably permissive, part in the development of normal vessel structure and in the adaptation of cardiovascular structure to chronic hypertension.