Renal regeneration following d-serine induced acute tubular necrosis.

Regeneration of the ray kidney was observed for six days after inducing acute tubular necrosis of the proximal pars recta with d-serine (80 mg/100 g body weight. Regenerating cells appear by two days post-treatment, and re-epithelialization of the nephron is completed within six days, with the most mature cells approaching normal morphology. Regeneration originates from viable cells adjacent to the necrotic zone which divide and follow a template provided by the intact basement membrane. Transient, cytoplasmic regenerative activity among developing tubular cells is characterized by the presence of large, irregularly shaped nuclei, prominent nucleoli, abundant ribosomes and lysosomes, and abnormal mitochondrial configurations. Microfilaments appear to be involved in the formation of apical microvilli and the basal labyrinth of plasmalemmal convolutions. These data suggest that d-serine induced acute tubular necrosis of the proximal pars recta may be followed by rapid, patterned regeneration along an intact basement membrane, and that microfilaments are involved in differentiation of cellular morphology.