Dissociation of urinary kallikrein activity and salt and water excretion in the rat.

Experiments were designed to examine the relationship, if any, between urinary kallikrein activity (amidolytic assay) and sodium and water excretion in 12-wk-old Munich-Wistar rats. Five groups of animals were studied: euvolemic, saline-expanded and water-loaded anesthetized rats, and euvolemic and saline-expanded conscious restrained rats. Following surgery, animals were allowed to stabilize (60-180 min) and reach a steady-state urine flow. By design, basal sodium and/or water excretion varied markedly among groups as a function of hydration state. Group means for sodium excretion and urine flow ranged from 0.8 to 12.4 mu eq/min and 6 to 112 microliter/min, respectively. In contrast, neither active nor total urinary kallikrein activity differed significantly among the five groups. In anesthetized euvolemic rats, intravenous administration of aprotinin produced a dose-dependent decrease in urinary kallikrein activity. The greatest inhibition of 93 +/- 3% (active) and 72 +/- 10% (total) was observed with a dose of 5,000 kallikrein inhibiting units (KIU)/kg and 1,000 KIU X kg-1 X min-1. This dose produced a significant decrease in active and total kallikrein activity in each group (P less than 0.001). However, sodium and water excretion were unchanged in aprotinin-treated rats and similar to values in vehicle-treated time-control groups. Linear regression analysis revealed no significant correlations between urinary kallikrein activity and sodium excretion or urine flow either among or within groups. These results indicate that urinary kallikrein activity is not related to acute sodium and water homeostasis in anesthetized or conscious rats.