Fate of the juxtaglomerular complex after ischemic injury.

The juxtaglomerular (JG) complex was studied at different times after 90 min of warm kidney ischemia: 2 h, 24 h, 3 days, 10 and 30 days following the ischemia. The ischemic injury was performed on the left kidney, under two experimental conditions: with and without previous nephrectomy of the contralateral nonischemic kidney. The activity of the JG complex was evaluated by assessing the JG index and by determination of plasma renin activity. Results show that, under given experimental conditions, fate of the particular JG complex depends on the fate of its own nephron. In the presence of the contralateral intact kidney most nephrons of the ischemic kidney underwent gradual degeneration and their JG complexes degenerated too. When ischemic kidney was the sole kidney, the majority of nephron units regenerated and their JG complexes recovered both morphologically and functionally.