Blood pressure and water and electrolyte intake and excretion in rats (Brattleboro strain) after unilateral nephrectomy.

Using Brattleboro rats with and without hereditary diabetes insipidus (DI, non-DI), blood pressure, water intake and the excretion of water, sodium, potassium and osmotically active substances were measured in intact individuals and in animals subjected to unilateral nephrectomy at the age of 23 or 80 days. The development of blood pressure (BP) changes, determined in unilaterally nephrectomized animals at the age of 4--6 months, depended on the age at which the kidney was removed. After nephrectomy at the age of 25 days, hypertension developed only in DI females given 0.6% NaCl solution to drink. The BP of those which drank water was unaffected. Unilateral nephrectomy at the age of 80 days produced a slight BP increase in females irrespective of whether they drank water or 0.6% NaCl, but in males only if they drank 0.6% NaCl solution. No hypertension was observed in intact animals. No relationship was found between water intake and the blood pressure level. The BP increase in water-drinking females uninephrectomized at 80 days was accompanied by a raised urine flow and raised excretion of osmotically active substances. Sodium losses in DI animals were greater than in non-DI animals and the urinary sodium concentration, in maximum dehydration, attained minimum values in DI and maximum values in non-DI animals. Unilateral nephrectomy at 25 days increased sodium losses in all the animals except non-DI females, but when performed at 80 days, only in DI males. No relationship between these results and BP changes was found. The possible relationship of the extrarenal consequences of absence of vasopressin to the development of experimental hypertension are discussed.