A comparison of the effect of feeding a low-protein diet and of pharmacological intervention on the course of ablation nephropathy in the rat.

In Wistar rats just after weaning, 5/6 of renal parenchyma were removed surgically. Thereafter, the rats were fed either a "high-protein" (21%) or two types of a "low-protein" (6%) diet; in one of the latter the lack of protein was substituted by saccharide, in the other by fat, making the substitution "isocaloric" in either case. In all three diet groups, subgroups were formed drinking either tap water or water containing either the ACE inhibitor enalapril (Ena) or the calcium antagonist diltiazem (Dil), or both (Ena + Dil). In the high-protein diet group, increases in the weight of kidney remnants, in proteinuria and in systolic blood pressure (SBP) were seen. This was prevented by feeding either type of the low-protein diet but also by Ena and Ena + Dil. Ena and Ena + Dil not only prevented the increase in SBP but actually lowered it significantly. Dil alone also had a SBP-lowering action but offered no protection from kidney hypertrophy and proteinuria. No additive protective action of Ena + Dil or Ena + low protein or Ena + Dil + low protein was seen, suggesting that a bottom limit of these protective action was reached by the low-protein diet alone. There was no substantial difference between either type of the low-protein diet except a small and transient decrease in body weight in the first week of fat-rich diet administration.