Effects of immediate blood flow enhancement on the postischemic kidney: functional, morphologic, and biochemical assessments.

Our purpose was to assess the influence of blood flow enhancement to the immediate postischemic kidney on tubular cell energetics and on the severity of the resulting ischemic acute renal failure (IARF). Female Sprague-Dawley rats were subjected to 40 minutes of bilateral renal artery occlusion (RAO). Half of the rats received a 5% body weight infusion of iso-oncotic saline solution (IOS; over 50 minutes) to acutely increase renal blood flow (RBF) immediately after vascular clamp release. The remaining half of the rats served as controls. The short-term effects (0 to 1 hour after vascular reflow) of IOS infusion on RBF, clearance iothalamate sodium (Cioth), urine Na excretion (UNaE), urine flow rate, tubular metabolic work (renal oxygen consumption, Qo2), adenine nucleotide concentrations, and renal histologic findings were assessed. The severity of the IARF (Cioth histologic findings) was also compared between the IOS-treated and the control groups 24 hours later. Postischemic (0 to 1 hour) RBF in control IARF rats and IOS-treated IARF rats was 2.3 +/- 0.3 and 13.6 +/- 0.4 ml/min, respectively (P less than 0.01) (normal RBF 6.1 +/- 0.4 ml/min). At 0 to 1 hour after reflow IOS-treated IARF rats had significantly higher Cioth (13 X), UNaE (18 X), urine flow (18 X), and Qo2 (4 X) than the control IARF group. Despite the fourfold increase in aerobic tubular work induced by IOS infusion, renal adenosine triphosphate (ATP) content did not decrease. At 24 hours after vascular reflow the severity of IARF was the same in the control and IOS-treated groups.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)