Publication: Chronic hypoxia induced ultrastructural changes in the rat adrenal zona glomerulosa
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Date
2002
Authors
Lorente, M. ; Mirapeix, R.M. ; Miguel, M. ; Longmei, W. ; Volk, D. ; Cervós-Navarro, J.
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Publisher
Murcia : F. Hernández
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DOI
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info:eu-repo/semantics/article
Description
Abstract
The adrenal cortex plays an important role in
adaptation to various forms of stress, including hypoxia.
While physiological changes in the aldosterone
metabolism during hypoxia have been extensively
described, few studies have focused on the
morphological changes in the adrenal glands under
chronic hypoxia.
We studied the ultrastructure of the z o n a
g l o m e ru l o s a of 6-month-old Wistar rats exposed to
chronic normobaric hypoxia. Animals were divided into
two groups: control (n=12) and hypoxic (n=12). In this
latter group, the animals were kept at 7% O2
concentration after a gradual adaptation (21, 15, 12, 10,
8, 7 vol% O2 ). The duration of the study was 112 days.
In comparison with normoxic rats, body weight and
adrenal gland weight of hypoxic animals was
significantly reduced by 18.5% (p=0.006) and 14.7%
(p=0.001) respectively. The thickness of the z o n a
glomerulosa decreased due to atrophy of cells. The main
ultrastructural changes observed were: 1) a decrease in,
or complete elimination of, lipid droplet content; 2) a
marked increase in lysosome number; and 3) the
presence of giant mitochondria.
Our findings show that rats fail to adapt to severe
chronic hypoxia. The ultrastructural changes in the zona
g l o m e ru l o s a found in the present study could reflect
changes in the aldosterone pathway.
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