Renal hypertrophy in streptozotocin-diabetic rats.

In male adolescent rats kidney mass attained maximum terminal value already at week 1 after streptozotocin treatment, and this value did not change over the next two weeks. At week 1 the kidney size of diabetic rats was greater than that of untreated controls, whereas at week 3 renal mass was the same in both groups. In adult rats with final body and kidney mass streptozotocin treatment failed to induce further increment in renal growth, and the kidney size of diabetic animals was the same as the final kidney size of age-matched control animals. The identity of terminal maximum values for kidney mass in male rats suggests rather an accelerated kidney growth than a true hypertrophic response in diabetes. Similar conclusion can be drawn from our observations made on the compensatory growth of the solitary kidney in diabetic rats with prior uninephrectomy.