The effect of adrenalectomy on water permeability in rat papillary collecting duct.

1. Chronic adrenal insufficiency impairs maximal urine concentration, probably in part due to reduced medullary tonicity but also possibly by inhibition of distal nephron water transport. This latter defect has been demonstrated in rabbit but not in rat. 2. Since the time between adrenalectomy and experiment was different in rabbit and rat studies, diffusional water permeability was evaluated in the papillary collecting duct in the absence and presence of submaximal (20 microU/mL) and supramaximal (200 microU/mL) arginine vasopressin (AVP) in adrenalectomized rats at 7, 14 and 21 days. 3. Experimentation 7 days after adrenalectomy failed to demonstrate significantly altered basal or AVP-induced water permeability which increased by 23 and 78% with submaximal and supramaximal concentrations, respectively. Submaximal AVP concentrations also induced a comparable change in water permeability in adrenalectomized rats at 14 days; however, 21 days after adrenalectomy, diffusional water permeability was not increased by 20 microU/mL AVP (3.31 +/- 0.22 to 3.31 +/- 0.24 microns/s). Nevertheless, the effect of a supramaximal AVP concentration (200 microU/mL) was not altered by adrenalectomy (4.54 +/- 0.39 to 8.08 +/- 0.96; P < 0.01). Incubation of collecting ducts in aldosterone for 2 h did not reverse the inhibitory effect of chronic adrenalectomy on AVP-stimulated water transport. 4. These studies suggest that mineralocorticoid withdrawal does impair the hydro-osmotic action of AVP in the rat papillary collecting duct but that this effect takes between 14 and 21 days to occur.