Role of the sympathetic nervous system in the renal response to hemorrhage.

In 12 studies, a femoral artery and vein of a donor dog treated with desoxycorticosterone were connected by tubing to a renal artery and vein of a recipient dog treated with desoxycorticosterone, and the kidney with its nerve supply intact was perfused at femoral arterial pressure. Infusion of normal saline, which contained albumin, from 2.7 to 3.1 g/100 ml, in the donor produced significant natriuresis in a kidney of the donor (from 112 to 532 muEq/min) and in the perfused kidney (from 60 to 301 muEq/min) of the recipient. Increased sodium excretion in the perfused kidney was associated with an increase in the clearances of inulin and para-aminohippurate (P < 0.01) and a decrease in hematocrit of perfusing blood (P < 0.01). Infusion was continued in the donor while recipient was bled 23 ml/kg, with a decrease in mean arterial pressure from 152 to 130 mm Hg. Sodium excretion in perfused kidney decreased from 301 to 142 muEq/min (P < 0.01), whereas sodium excretion in donor was unchanged (506 VS. 532 muEq/min; P > 0.3). Clearance of inulin by perfused kidney was not significantly affected by bleeding (26 +/-SE 2 VS. 25 +/-SE 2; P > 0.2), but the clearance of para-aminohippurate was decreased by bleeding (P < 0.01), so that filtration fraction increased. As the perfused kidney of the recipient dog continued to receive blood from the natriuretic donor dog when the recipient dog was bled, the decrease in sodium excretion that bleeding produced in the perfused kidney was presumably mediated by renal nerves. Thus, an increase in nervous stimuli to the kidney that is not sufficient to decrease glomerular filtration rate can increase the tubular reabsorption of sodium and thereby significantly decrease its excretion. This property of the sympathetic nervous system to affect tubular reabsorption of sodium suggests that an increase in sympathetic activity may constitute an important mechanism for the renal conservation of sodium when intravascular volume is contracted by hemorrhage or other cause.