Acidemia alone does not stimulate rat renal Na+-H+ antiporter activity.

To examine whether systemic acidemia is the cause of the adaptive increase in renal brush-border membrane (BBM) Na+-H+ exchange activity seen in metabolic acidosis, we examined the time course of changes in Na+-H+ exchange activity in rats with chronic metabolic or respiratory acidosis. Metabolic acidosis was created by allowing rats free access to a 1.5% NH4Cl drinking solution. Respiratory acidosis was created by housing rats in a chamber designed to maintain ambient PCO2 levels at 10%. All rats were fed normal rat chow. Control and respiratory acidosis rats had free access to tap water. Rats from each group were studied 1, 3, 5, 7, and 14 days after onset of treatment. Na+-H+ exchange activity was examined in renal BBM vesicles using acridine orange. In both metabolic acidosis and respiratory acidosis, arterial blood [H+] increased markedly at day 1 and returned toward normal thereafter; at day 14, [H+] was elevated to a comparable degree in both groups. In metabolic acidosis, Na+-H+ exchange activity remained at control levels for 3 days but increased markedly thereafter. In contrast, in respiratory acidosis no adaptive increase in activity occurred at any time. Because no correlation was found between blood [H+] and renal BBM Na+-H+ exchange activity, we conclude that stimuli other than systemic acidemia are responsible for the adaptation seen in chronic metabolic acidosis.