Renin content and excretory function of the kidney in rats with experimental hypertension

To determine relationship between kidney renin content and excretory function, rats with renal hypertension induced by unilateral clamping of the renal artery were given an oral load of 3 ml of 0.9% saline/100 g body wt. Excretion of the saline load was accelerated in rats with renal hypertension as well as in animals with hypertension due to overdosage with cortexone and salt, provided that the loading experiment was made 3–4 weeks after hypertension was established, but not when animals had been hypertensive for 11–14 weeks. Renin concentration was markedly reduced in the unclamped kidney and also in the kidney of the rats overdosed with cortexone and salt. Excreting capacity of the clamped kidney was compared with that of the unclamped kidney, after removal or after functional elimination of the contralateral kidney, by ligation of the ureter, 3, 24, and 48 hr after the operation. In all experiments excretion of saline load by the unclamped kidney was more rapid than by the clamped kidney, but the highest values were reached in the presence of a functional clamped kidney. Only in rats with elevated blood pressure was the load more rapidly excreted than in normal rats, but hypertension alone cannot be the only factor responsible, the excretion not being accelerated in unilaterally nephrectomized hypertensive rats. Although these hint at a connection between the renin concentration and renal function the nature of this relationship remains uncertain.

INFLUENCE OF EXPERIMENTAL KIDNEY DAMAGE ON HISTOCHEMICALLY DEMONSTRABLE LIPASE ACTIVITY IN THE RAT. COMPARISON WITH ALKALINE PHOSPHATASE ACTIVITY

Lipase activity was found in the cytoplasm of the proximal convoluted tubules in tissue sections of rat, rabbit, dog, mouse, hamster, and guinea pig, stained according to Gomori's method. Uranium and mercury poisoning do not inactivate the enzyme in necrotic cells of the proximal convoluted tubules. Its activity diminished in the atrophic and regenerating cells of the kidneys of rats, surviving the acute phase of the intoxication. In the acute stage of choline deficiency marked reduction in enzymatic activity was seen in the necrotic tubules, and in the atrophied and regenerating tubules in the subacute stage. Lipase activity was markedly diminished in hydronephrotic kidneys 10 to 12 days after ligation of the ureter. In sections stained for alkaline phosphatase activity nearly identical alterations were found. Experimental damage influences both histochemically demonstrable enzymes in a similar manner.

A STUDY OF THE CIRCULATION OF THE KIDNEYS FOLLOWING LIGATION OF ONE URETER

During the first four or five days after ligation of the ureter, the changes in the kidney are mainly degenerative in type. One week after ligation of the ureter connective tissue cells begin to appear infiltrating the kidney tissues. There is also an increase in the vascular cells of the glomeruli. These changes are well marked at the end of twenty days from the time of ligation. At the end of twenty days from the time of ligation there is also a marked hypertrophy of the control kidney, the glomeruli showing an average increase in size of twenty-five microns.