Secretion and metabolism of cortisol and aldosterone during controlled hyperthermia

1. The rates of secretion and metabolic clearance of cortisol and aldosterone in response to passive heating have been investigated in fifteen young men by the controlled hyperthermia technique combined with continuous I.V. infusion of [14C]cortisol and [3H]aldosterone. 2. During a 1 hr period of elevation of deep body temperature to 38.0 degrees C mean hepatic blood flow measured by indocyanine green clearance decreased by more than 25% compared with normothermic condition. 3. The pattern of response in hyperthermia involved decreasing plasma specific activities indicating increased adrenal secretion of both cortisol and aldosterone. 4. Aldosterone metabolic clearance rate usually decreased in hyperthermia when there was little change in the clearance rate of cortisol, but an increased aldosterone clearance rate was observed when there were significant increases in the clearance rate of cortisol. A contributing factor to elevation of plasma aldosterone concentration in the heat is the reduction in hepatic blood flow which reduces aldosterone metabolic clearance rate. 5. Suppression of the thermally induced rise in plasma cortisol concentration by dexamethasone was associated with a decrease in aldosterone clearance rate which may reflect increased availability of aldosterone-binding plasma protein. 6. Marked rises in plasma cortisol were always accompanied by simultaneous rises in aldosterone, but rises in aldosterone sometimes occurred in the absence of a rise in cortisol. We therefore suggest that ACTH stimulation plays an important, but not exclusive, role in the stimulation of aldosterone secretion during hyperthermia.