Activation of the humoral antihypertensive system of the kidney increases diuresis.

Isolated kidneys taken from normotensive Wistar-Kyoto rats were cross-perfused extracorporeally by normotensive strain-matched donor rats. The extracorporeal perfusion circuit was arranged so that the perfusion pressure to the normotensive recipient kidney could be varied from 90 to 200 mm Hg without any change in total flow through this circuit. This setup avoided hemodynamic or mechanical interferences with reflexogenic circulatory control in the normotensive donor rat when the recipient kidney was manipulated. Diuresis and natriuresis were measured in the normotensive donor rat and the normotensive recipient kidney. A few minutes after normotensive recipient kidney perfusion pressure had been raised, mean arterial pressure (MAP) and heart rate started to decline rapidly in the normotensive donor rat, and circulatory collapse ensued within 15 to 100 minutes. During the control period at 90 mm Hg normotensive recipient kidney perfusion pressure, urinary flow, MAP and heart rate were stable in the normotensive donor rat and the normotensive recipient kidney. When perfusion pressure was raised to 200 mm Hg in the recipient kidney, the urinary flow in the donor rat increased 62% on average in the first 10 minutes over values recorded before the pressure rise (p less than 0.05) while MAP simultaneously fell by 16% and HR remained unchanged. During the subsequent period, the urinary flow of the donor rat declined together with MAP and heart rate. In the extracorporeally high-pressure perfused recipient kidneys, an eightfold to ninefold increase in diuresis and natriuresis occurred during the first 45 minutes.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)