Transplantation of pituitary and adrenal glands of spontaneously hypertensive rats into hypophysectomized or adrenalectomized, normotensive Sprague-Dawley rats.

Pituitary and adrenal glands removed from male and female spontaneously hypertensive (SH) rat donors with high blood pressure were implanted in normotensive, Sprague-Dawley (S-D) recipients which had been hypophysectomized or adrenalectomized. The transplants were accepted readily and after 90 days the animals were necropsied. Maintenance of organs and body weights suggested that the pituitary glands of SH rats have an adequate content of growth hormone but there may be an intrinsic deficiency of gonadotrophic hormones in this strain. The blood pressure of the hypophysectomized and adrenalectomized recipients was well maintained, particularly by the Sh-rat adrenal transplants, but the blood pressure of the recipients did not become abnormally elevated. SH-rat pituitary and adrenal glands caused fatty infiltration of the liver and hyperlipidaemia indicative of a lipotrophic factor in the SH rat strain. The histopathological changes in the transplanted pituitary and adrenal glands, and in intact pituitary and adrenal glands of the recipients, suggested that SH-rat pituitary glands secrete extra quantities of ACTH, that the pituitary-adrenal axis of this strain is extra sensitive to stressful stimuli, and that the spectrum of adrenal steroids secreted by this strain may be different from that of most normotensive strains.