[Role of neutrophils in warm renal ischemia and reperfusion injury in the rat].

This study attempts to determine whether the circulating neutrophils play a role in mediating injury resulting from renal ischemia, using rats treated with cyclophosphamide (CY) and/or granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF). The neutrophil counts immediately before 60-minute ischemia decreased by 89% in the CY-treated rats in comparison with the untreated animals (p < 0.01). In the rats given G-CSF with CY, the neutrophil counts significantly increased over that of the CY-treated rats (p < 0.01). The serum creatinine level 24 hours after reperfusion amounted to 4.42 +/- 0.37 mg/dl in the control rats and 2.63 +/- 0.29 mg/dl in the CY-treated rats (p < 0.01). In 19 rats, 10 controls and the 9 CY-treated, the neutrophil counts immediately before ischemia correlated well with the serum creatinine levels 24 hours after reperfusion (r = 0.597; p < 0.01). Our results appear to indicate that neutrophils play an important role in warm ischemia and reperfusion injury of the kidney.