[Chronobiology and renal physiopathology].

This review presents our recent knowledge in renal chronobiology, considering physiology, pathology, pharmacology and toxicology. In a first part, are described renal chronophysiological data, pointing out particularly urinary excretion rhythms, largely described for last century. Such physiological observations lead to conclude that renal structures and functions present large temporal variations. Endogenous and exogenous origins of these rhythms are widely discussed. Evidence of such circadian and circannual variations in these renal structures and functions permit to understand why different agents, pathogeneous, toxic or medicamentous, will present time-dependent effects at renal level. So, a second part presents some recent experimental and clinical data in chrononephrology, chronopharmacology and chrononephrotoxicity. Finally, the concept of renal chronesthesy is presented and discussed, in order to explain these temporal variations in renal target susceptibility to different substances acting at this level.