Effects of ischaemia on leakage of albumin in rabbit kidneys.

The effect of ischaemia on the leakage of proteins across the vessel walls in rabbit kidneys was studied. The leakage of proteins was estimated from the distribution space of labelled albumin. Various methods to calculate the vascular volume yielding the true extravascular leakage were tested. The most reliable method appeared to be to use the same tracer (131I-albumin, 125I-albumin) for both estimating the leakage and the intravascular volume. One hour of ischaemia induced a drastic increase in the extravasation of proteins in the cortex and outer zone of the medulla but not in the inner zone.