Lost mass and excretion as stimuli to parabiotic compensatory renal hypertrophy.

To help determine the roles of lost renal mass and lost excretory ability in producing renoprival hypertrophy, observations were made in otherwise normal rats cross-circulated for 24 h with rats prepared in one of the following ways: bilateral nephrectomy, bilateral ureteral ligation, or bilateral nephrectomy with 24 h of uremia. Bilateral nephrectomy produced parabiotic increases in renal mass and in the average cellular concentration of RNA: bilateral ureteral ligation did not. Uremia did not potentiate the effects of bilateral nephrectomy. Lost mass is the determinant of compensatory renal hypertrophy.