Acute uremia following dietary potassium depletion. I. Effect on blood parameters related to carbohydrate metabolism.

The effect of an acute uremic state with normokalemia and only mild metabolic acidosis on blood metabolic intermediates related to carbohydrate metabolism was investigated in rats. Therefore animals were deprived of potassium by feeding a low-potassium diet for 4 weeks prior to induction of bilateral nephrectomy, ureteral ligation or hemoglobinuric acute renal failure. Potassium depletion in the setting of acute uremia resulted in increased plasma creatinine, urea nitrogen, and lower plasma glucose levels in comparison to normokalemic, acutely uremic rats. Plasma insulin became depressed only in potassium-depleted rats which had undergone ureteral ligation. Potassium depletion in both acute renal failure and sham-operated animals resulted in an increase in plasma lactate, pyruvate, and oxoglutarate. Ketone bodies decreased in potassium-depleted sham-operated rats, whereas acetoacetate levels increased significantly in potassium-depleted bilateral-nephrectomized animals.