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- Title
Circulatory retention of urinary factors as a stimulus to renal growth.
- Authors
Harris, Robert H.; Best, Christopher F.
- Abstract
Both unilateral nephrectomy and unilateral uretral obstruction are followed by growth of !he contralateral kidney. The mechanisms that initiate this compensatory renal hypertrophy, however, have not been established. The present study examined the possible role of reduced excretory function, or circulatory retention of urinary products, as a stimulus to renal growth. For this purpose, eight rats (½UR) were subjected to continual i.v. reinfusion of half their urine output for one week, a procedure that left the mass, and presumably the nonexcretory functions. of the kidneys intact. These rats were compared with eight rats with unilateral nephrectomy (Uni-Nx) and eight shammanipulated control rats (SHAM). On the seventh day of the study, kidney weights, both wet and alter drying at 100°C for 24 hr, were compared among the three groups. Mean individual kidney weights of the ½UR rats were increased in comparison with those of either .SHAM rats (wet weight, 30% greater; dry weight. 25% greater; P < 0.01 for both) or the initially-removed kidney of Uni-Nx rats (wet weight, 50% greater; dry weight. 32% greater: P < 0.01 for both). Left vs. right kidney weights (wet or dry) did not differ in either ½UR or SHAM rats. ,\s expected, the mean weight of the remaining kidney in Uni-Nx rats was significantly greater than that of the initially-removed contralateral kidney or of the SHAM kidneys. Dry weight of the hypertrophied Uni-Nx kidney was 10% greater than that of individual ½UR kidneys (P < 0.05). The calculated total amount by which the dry weight of both ½UR kidneys was increased, however, was somewhat greater than the increase noted in the Uni-Nx kidneys. Thus, a selective reduction of urinary excretory function in the ½UR rats led to bilateral renal growth. This finding suggests that following unilateral nephrectomy or unilateral ureteral obstruction, circulatory retention of factors normally excreted in the urine may play an important role as a stimulus to renal hypertrophy.
- Subjects
KIDNEYS; HYPERTROPHY; LABORATORY rats; URINALYSIS; URINE; NEPHROLOGY
- Publication
Kidney International, 1977, Vol 12, Issue 5, p305
- ISSN
0085-2538
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1038/ki.1977.117