[Pathophysiology of the membrane function in the kidney].

The examples of tubular proteinuria, postobstructive diuresis, tubular function in terminal renal failure and the hereditary defects of tubular transport mechanisms are used to demonstrate the difficulty in elucidating defects of renal membrane transports in man. She is caused by the impossibility of applying the appropriate techniques to evaluate membrane functions in man and by the complexity of human disease. The rapidly growing knowledge of physiologic membrane functions in the kidney should however enable some progress in the field of human pathophysiology in a not too remote future.