Role of renal nerves in response to volume expansion in conscious newborn lambs.

The present study was designed to determine the influence of renal nerves in mediating the renal response to volume expansion in conscious newborn lambs. Bilateral renal denervation (n = 9) or sham surgery (n = 14) was carried out in newborn lambs 3 to 4 days before performing experiments. Lambs were between 6 and 12 days of age when studied. Chronic denervation did not alter basal neonatal renal function nor renal hemodynamics. Volume expansion with isotonic saline equal to 5% of body weight was associated with a fall in hematocrit and an increase in mean arterial blood pressure, glomerular filtration rate, urine flow rate, and Na+ excretion in intact and denervated lambs. In intact lambs, atrial natriuretic factor increased from 98 +/- 28 to 176 +/- 48 ng/ml during volume expansion and remained elevated for 1 h after volume expansion. In addition, plasma renin activity fell from 21 +/- 5 to 8 +/- 1 ng.ml-1.h-1 and aldosterone levels fell from 160 +/- 24 to 59 +/- 7 pg/ml by 150 min after the start of volume expansion. Similar changes in atrial natriuretic factor, plasma renin activity, and aldosterone were observed in denervated lambs. However, the increase in glomerular filtration rate, Na+ excretion, and fractional excretion of Na+ after volume expansion were significantly less in denervated than in intact lambs. Thus, in the newborn, the renal nerves do not appear to play a role in influencing basal renal hemodynamics and renal function but, as in the adult, the renal sympathetic nervous system does play a role in regulating fluid and electrolyte excretion during hypervolemia.