Effects of a diet deficient in essential fatty acids on the glomerular hypercellularity occurring in the course of nephrotoxic serum nephritis in rats.

An accelerated model of nephrotoxic serum nephritis (NTN) was induced in two groups of Sprague-Dawley rats on the following regimens: (a) a diet deficient in essential fatty acids that contained 20% coconut oil (rats A); (b) a diet supplemented with essential fatty acids that contained 20% safflower oil (rats B). Animals from both groups developed a severe proteinuria reaching its maximum 4 days after the injection of nephrotoxic serum (NTS). Kidney tissue was studied by light and immunofluorescent microscopy 2 to 21 days after NTS injection. The glomeruli of rats A exhibited much more fibrinoid deposition than did those of rats B. A comparable glomerular infiltration by mononuclear cells was observed in both groups of animals between the 2nd and 5th day following the injection of NTS. The number of intrinsic glomerular cells incorporating 3H-thymidine in vivo, however, was significantly lower in rats A than it was in rats B. The outgrowth capacity of glomerular cells in vitro was significantly lower in glomerular explants from rats A than it was in glomerular explants from rats B. These findings demonstrate that, in this model of rat NTN, a diet deficient in essential fatty acids has no major effects on the course of the disease during the first 3 weeks following NTS injection. They further show that the proliferation of intrinsic glomerular cells can be modulated by altering prostaglandin metabolism.