Experimental pyelonephritis in the cat: 3. Collagen alterations in renal fibrosis.

Chronic pyelonephritis was induced in young adult cats by the intravenous injection of a human or a feline strain of Escherichia coli after ligation of one ureter for 24 or 48 h. In the 3 cats infected with the feline strain, scarred kidneys from the obstructed side were removed at necropsy 3, 4 and 5 months later. Collagen was extracted from pyelonephritic and normal kidney tissue with dilute acetic acid and limited proteolysis with pepsin. Scarred kidneys gave higher yields of both acid-soluble collagen (normal = 0.57 +/- 0.12 mg per g tissue; scarred = 0.88 +/- 0.10 mg per g tissue) and pepsin-solubilized collagen (normal = 9.69 +/- 1.79 mg per g tissue; scarred = 20.02 +/- 2.84 mg per g tissue). There was no significant increase in the collagen yield from the kidneys of the 2 cats in which mild focal lesions were found 14 and 16 months after infection with the human strain of E. coli. Pepsin released collagens were separated by fractional salt precipitation and identified by agarose gel chromatography and polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. Normal kidney was shown to contain collagen of Types I, IV and V (AB). The Type IV collagen extracted consisted of a mixture of 4 major pepsin-resistant chains of apparent molecular weights of 150 000, 115 000, 85 000 and 60 000. The collagen extracted from scarred kidneys was predominantly Type I, only trace amounts of Type IV and V components being present. These findings suggest that basement membrane collagens of the kidney are selectively degraded during the atrophy and scarring of chronic feline pyelonephritis and are preferentially replaced by interstitial Type I collagen.