Ovariectomy-induced changes in the adrenal cortex of spontaneously hypertensive rats.

Many lines of evidence indicate that adrenocortical steroid hormones are involved in the development and maintenance of hypertension in spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR). Twenty-eight days after ovariectomy a notable decrease in the sistolic blood pressure (BP) was found in SHR, along with a marked atrophy of their adrenal cortices. The hypothesis is advanced that the ovariectomy-induced lowering in BP in SHR may be, at least partly, mediated by the suppression of the adrenal secretory activity, due to the lack of circulating estrogens, which are well known to stimulate hypophyseal ACTH release.