HORMONE AND RENAL FUNCTION

I. SEX HORMONES AND RENAL FUNCTION

Abstract

M. Ono, a member of our laboratory, has once made public a detailed report on the morphological influences of sex hormones on the kidney of an albino rat, but there is scarcely any systematic study on the functional effect of sex hormones upon the kidney. The present work was attempted to shed light on the effect of sex hormones on the renal function, by measuring GFR and RPF respectively with creatinine clearance and with PAH clearance as to mature male rabbits during 2 weeks of daily administration of various sex hormones in a small dose as well as in a large dose.
The results obtained were as follows, compared with the control experiment performed on 9 normal rabbits:
(A) Effect of male sex hormones on renal function.
(1) Testosterone acetate: GFR showed a considerably great increase (Ca 50-70%) during the administration of this hormone in both small and large doses, while RPF showed a little increase only when given in a small dose.
(2) Testosterone propionate: the increase of both GFR and RPF was just as effected as when testosterone acetate was injected, but a degree of the increase was less remarkable in GFR and more conspicuous in RPF than in case of testosterone acetate.
(3) Following castration, GFR decreased day by day to as low as -40% on the 28th day, while RPF remained hardly changed throughout the experiment.
(B) Effect of female sex hormones on renal function.
(1) Follicular hormones: by urinary follicular hormone, in both small and large doses, GFR showed a slight tendency of increasing in one week after the administration of the hormone and returned to a normal value in two weeks. RPF increased in one week after the administration of the hormone in a large dose and in 2 weeks decreased, while, in a small dose administration of the hormone, it showed any significant change neither in one week nor in two weeks. By synthetic follicular hormone, GFR remained scarcely effected in both small and large doses, and RPF decreased slightly more remarkably in cases of a large dose than in the case by urinary follicular hormone, while, in case of a small dose, it showed hardly any change.
(2) Corpus luteum hormone: by Oophormin luteum (an extract of corpus luteum of a pig) both GFR and RPF remained unchanged even in a large dose, but the synthetic preparation (progesterone acetate) brought on a slight increase of GFR and RPF in both small and large doses.
(C) Effects of male sex hormone on damaged renal function.
(1) Testosterone acetate, administered following castration, brought on a remarkable recovery of decreased GFR, while no effect on RPF was observed.
(2) GFR and RPF, which had decreased by subcutaneous administration of a sublimate solution, recovered normal by the application of testosterone acetate following.
(3) The effects, observed in (1) and (2), occurred in most conspicuous degree on 15th day of daily administration of testosterone acetate, and nothing effective was found already in ca. 15 days after discontinuance of testosterone administration.